Chapter 105

Igras-Sho

Surrounding me was riffling, thick darkness.

I opened my eyes in the dark shadow.

‘… This place is?!’

Near me, neither Nate, Hibiki, the devil’s sword… nor the sacred beast that took the pond’s shape was around.

The dungeon with the gray field had disappeared, and only darkness existed.

‘Forced physical teleportation? Or, mind interference? Or did the whole dungeon temporarily turn into a sacred place?’

The thing that disrupted my chaotic flow of thought was an object that caught my eyes.

‘It’ appeared eerily, pushing the darkness away.

The fluttering shadow was torn in between like a torrent, and at the center was a white flesh that stole my attention.

It was difficult to estimate the size since I could not measure the distance between us.

‘… It’s changing!’

Like the plain marble blocks that were carved out by an outline and shades, it turned into a detailed statue.

The shape, which only looked like a lump of white flesh, began to change sophistically.

At the same time, I realized the illusion I had.

‘It isn’t that its form is changing, but my cognitive abilities are becoming clearer.’

[The Successor’s Eyes] helped me overcome cognitive impairment and see reality as clearly as possible.

As a result, I was able to see a creature in a familiar shape instead of a chunk of flesh.

The flesh, which was the body, had seven thin white arms that extend symmetrically from side to side.

The perfect symmetry was disconnected at the end. There was a blunt mark in the frontmost, where the right arm should be attached as if it had been torn off.

There was a head at the center of the body that was too similar to that of humans. Like a ghost, there were no eyes, nose, and mouth but simply a face covered with bare skin.

‘It doesn’t exactly match the appearance of the idol, but…’

It would have been strange not to know who it was with that kind of look.

‘Igras-Sho!’

It was a being that was adored as a god in many dimensions that had finished the tutorial.

The darkness that filled that space was flowing from the base of Igras-Sho’s severed arm.

Even at that moment, the god seemed to be constantly losing parts of itself.

‘Why would a god bring me here?!’

I remembered what the sacred beast had said.

A great being would bless me in an acceptable form.

‘Does it mean that I can connect with the god by only offering that much of monsters?’

Something’s wrong with that.

Tension filled my entire body instinctively.

At that moment, my head was filled with questions. However, I had no time to organize them.

“… !”

The darkness began to press on me without warning.

The boundaries between my five senses then collapsed and converged. In the storm of collapsing senses, I heard scents, tasted sounds, and touched the fluttering shadow.

Beyond that tangled senses, the darkness licked my skin and whispered.

You have good eyes, don’t you, boy?

It knew that my eyes accurately captured it.

The god’s whisper had a jasmine scent that was viscous like honey.

Once more, it continued as if it was interested in me.

But you’re not fully ripe yet. Is it too much to use you as my hands and feet?

My thoughts became more complicated when I encountered the heavy echo.

What the hell did it want from me?

A thing like connecting to a god couldn’t be that easy, by common sense. I had only offered thousands of monsters… What would be its intention? I had a headache because my thoughts turned heavy. I wanted to rip its head off like a butterfly without a head. I had seen it dried up, tangled in a spider’s web. It’s light as paper, and the head flew away somewhere. If one were to eat the head first, the body would be drained of fluids and dried up. If my strength drained and flowed, without being able to escape, I would stay there for a long time, stay some more, and how much longer? I would curse them, curse them all. Terrible revenge on all those who had exiled me there… I would bring them… Someday, I would–

“K-ugh!”

In a hurry, I bounced off all the foreign substance-like ideas that had been digging into my mind.

“Huff… Huff!”

I gasped with rapid breathing like a distressed man who barely swam out of the water after drowning.

I could feel the unpleasantness of the body and mind being dragged down heavily.

‘What was that just now?!’

It felt like another being swept into my soul like a tide and mixed it up messily.

I had barely managed to resist and defended myself before crossing the last line and being completely taken over.

And a step behind, the system message rang out.

– … S… u… cces… sso… r’s Eyes resists to [?????? (Rank: ?????)]. Resistance effect is not perfect because of overw… hel… m… ing p… ow… er…

System messages were delivered not only slow but also felt distant and faint, like static radio waves.

I had cold sweats pouring, but the darkness once again giggled as if it were having fun.

Your soul is durable and tough. Isn’t that admirable?

Only then did I feel the distance between Igras-Sho and me.

The darkness between the two was as wide and endless as the universe in that vast space.

The great being kept whispering to me.

You truly are a child worthy of my attention… In a piece of time and space that has been divided into a myriad of numbers. I want to keep you around for a long time, but it’s not the right time, so I’ll give you a simple gift instead.

The moment I understood its meaning, I wanted to shout with all my might.

I wanted to scream that I didn’t need it, but then.

Shh!

My hand lifted itself, and at the end of it, a warm and damp sensation lingered.

At the very next moment, there was a burning pain in my fingers.

I couldn’t even scream in the deep darkness as I felt the torment of my nerves burning.

While I was in that state, the darkness tossed a word to me.

Three times. I’ll give you three chances to call my name. Put it on your tongue and lips at the most desperate moment.

In the pain of my fingers crushing and turning into ashes, I gritted my teeth.

I didn’t exactly know what that suggestion meant, but it sounded sinister and ominous.

With a subtle whisper, it greeted me farewell.

Eventually, we’ll see each other again.

And the darkness tossed me off.

*

“… !”

The chaotic air in the dungeon surrounded me as if to smack me.

“Huh? Jin-Wook, what’s wrong?”

I was back inside the gray-earthed dungeon.

I think I knew how my expression looked even if I couldn’t see it.

Nate, who had been frozen like a mannequin, was moving again and was gazing at me with concern.

Hibiki, who had her eyes closed and looked at the list of newly available orders, also noticed a strange atmosphere.

“Is there something wrong?”

“…”

I took a deep breath and organized my perplexed mind.

“… No, It’s nothing.”

The moment they saw me doing that for the first time, much deeper worry cast on the two’s faces.

I barely caught myself in the middle of my terror.

“How about the change of the seven cards into skills? Everything’s going great, right?”

When I returned to my usual way of speaking, Hibiki nodded and smiled as if she was relieved.

“Yes, mastery skill of seven types. It completed upgrading everything to SSS-Rank.”

“Good, you’ll have to get used to the new spells for a while, so practice hard… Well, for you, Hibiki, you’ll do just well without me telling you this.”

Hibiki nodded her head with eyes full of motivation.

I turned my head to bring back the devil’s sword that was floating in the distance.

As I flicked my finger-

Swish!

Instantly, the sword flew towards me.

As soon as I held the handle, the devil’s sword gave off a loud mental wave.

‘You… you… you… What happened in that short time?!’

As I remembered the sheath of the devil’s sword producing black smoking, I answered the question with a question.

“I should be the one to ask that. Did anything change in you?”

However, the devil’s sword wasn’t aware at all that time had stopped, and it seemed to not feel any abnormalities in its state.

It replied with a fuss.

‘Don’t change the topic. The problem right now is not me but you! I’m asking you, why in the hell do I feel sacred power from your body!’

“Sacred power?”

Knowing that I was talking with the devil’s sword, Nate and Hibiki, who were talking with each other, turned their heads because of a suddenly raised tone.

‘It’s much weaker than that sacred beast, but I can feel it. That unpleasant sensation!’

“No, wait. No way.”

I recalled that in the darkness, I felt a terrible pain in my left hand.

I moved my left arm to take a closer look at it.

‘Ahh! Don’t put it near the sword!’

The devil’s sword got surprised and acted as if it were appalled.

Ignoring its reaction, I checked my left hand.

I noticed the strange change right away.

Unbeknownst to me, I swore.

“Damn it, what is this?!”

Red marks were aligned side by side on my left index finger.

There were three spot-shaped scars in the middle of the dark red circle.

When the snakes on my wrist didn’t respond automatically, I performed recovery magic myself, but of course, it didn’t disappear.

The two of them approached me with worried faces.

“Huh? That!”

Pointing at the marks left on my hand, Nate spoke.

“Jin-Wook, did you get bitten by a bug?”

“… Bug?”

“Yeah, I know a bug bite when I see one.”

Nate, who was bitten by all kinds of things in his younger years as he lived in poverty, answered confidently.

“Yeah, this is definitely a bite mark from something.”

He carefully looked at the scar and spoke.

“Hmm, it is usually spiders that leave a scar like this.”

Spider.

Crack.

As I gritted my teeth, I recalled the last thing that the god whispered to me from the dark.

‘Three times. I will give you three chances to call my name.’

And the three scars that were imprinted on my finger.

It wasn’t too hard to guess their relationship.

*

“Hey! Have you been well?”

The one to enter my office door without any notice or knock was a hairy man who was 3 meters tall.

“… Ah, have you arrived?”

I greeted Adam, who came back from a few days of outings.

He wondered when he saw a slightly subdued expression.

“What’s with your face? I have brought very good news to you.”

For some reason, he looked a little excited.

However, he must have felt a trace of worry on my face. He tilted his head.

“Did something happen?”

“… Something did happen.”

“Is it bad?”

“That’s the problem. I can’t discern if this is a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Tell me about it. I’m called an information consultant for a reason. I’ll help you in any way that I can help you with!”

To be honest, his suggestion made me open my ears.

Human beings on Earth, including myself, had little direct contact with the divine being in the previous life.

The same went for other dimensions that were proceeding with the tutorial.

All I knew about the gods were their name, characteristics, uses, and the meaning of traces revealed through dungeons, like the case of Shepherd 2 dungeon.

However, it was said that the dimensions undergoing the main quest were more deeply intertwined with the divine beings.

“What happened is…”

Adam, who listened to my explanation, first showed concern and darkened his face, then turned pale with frightening surprise, and at the end, he was excited to the point that he turned red, and the veins in his forehead and neck threatened to pop out of his neck.

“I-I-Is that true?”

“I’m not lying. I swear.”

He fumed, and with rather rough breathing, spoke out.

“No, does that make sense?!”

“I don’t understand it either.”

To a mortal who hadn’t even finished the tutorial, why would a god show such deep interest?

“What the hell did you offer them that the heavy-assed gods revealed themselves? Did you destroy a planet? You wouldn’t have carried out a massacre on Earth, so… Perhaps on a different dimension?”

“There were only thousands of monsters.”

“… Are you serious?”

“I’m serious.”

His face became stiffer.

He was lost in thought for a while before he opened his mouth again.

“First of all, it’s already great that you got to come back. Usually, the cognitive self melts and mixes up there. I already know this, but you seem to have a great skill.”

“…”

“But from now on, you have to think that you’re under some kind of probation. A self-imposed prohibition that is.”

“What do you mean?”

“From now on, never, even unconsciously, or by accident… Mention the name of the god in your mouth!”

It meant that I shouldn’t pronounce the name of Igras-Sho.

“It didn’t matter if you got a blessing corresponding to the scale of consecration. However, to have connected with god by only offering a few monsters… It means great danger. For ridiculous reasons, the god recognized and even remembered the existence of a mortal man named Seo Jin-Wook. If the Earth had been through the tutorial, he would have made you into a god.”

He continued, frowning as he pointed at my scar.

“It’s impossible right now, so he stopped only up to that point. The thing left on your finger is called holy wounds. Surely, it would be of a mechanism that if you call the name of that god, in exchange for granting a wish, the scar will disappear one by one. It means you can make up to three wishes.”

“However,” he continued.

“I recommend that you don’t use any of them. There is no guarantee how your wishes will come true… and the most tricky part is what happens in the case that you have used all three chances.”

He spoke in a heavy voice as if he were warning me.

“Nobody really knows what’s going to happen then.”

I sighed and nodded.

I agreed with him about that.

“Yeah, there would probably be no instances for me to use it.”

“Good thinking.”

Without realizing it, I turned my eyes once again toward the scars on my finger.

I thought I was caught up in something very troublesome.

“Oh, by the way!”

Adam changed the topic.

His expression lightened up a little.

“I told you I have good news!”

“Hmm, what is it?”

He replied with a smile.

“The alien you were anxiously searching for, I finally found it.”

It was good news that I didn’t expect.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve checked, and he seems to have hidden at this dimension without reporting it to the union. In their books, he’s called an illegal immigrant. And the better news is…”

He laughed with his teeth revealed.

“A Union observer has decided to arrest that bastard himself!”