Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Earnest Wish (2)

The moment when the dazzling system message disappeared.

“…”

A new message appeared in front of my eyes along with a feeling of a lead being placed on my heart.

「 Power: Sword of Iron-blood (A-) has been engraved on your soul. 」

Sword of Iron-blood.

I’d obtained the power to summon a sword made of mana at any time.

The power that I obtained, Sword of Iron-blood, was a power in which the ability of the summoned sword was also determined by the swordsmanship skill and mana level.

As such, it’d have taken quite a long time to buy it if I was going to buy it at the exclusive contractor shop, but… 

‘I’m not that happy.’

Even though I had obtained a better power than I expected, I was surprisingly calm.

It was the same as well as in the trial of the 10th floor. It was probably because I had obtained many rewards several times.

Let’s say, just a fine feeling that I got a good card in my hand?

I had no other feelings than that.

Would it be because of that?

“…Don’t tell me you got the most useless power?”

The Iron-Blooded Monarch, who was sitting down and observing me, widened her eyes and asked me that question.

Of course, I didn’t get as bad of a power as she thought, so I immediately shook my head.

“I got the power I thought I needed at this point.”

“…?”

“I’ve obtained the Sword of Iron-blood.”

“That’s… Amazing.”

The Iron-blooded Monarch continued speaking as though she was relieved.

“Sword of Iron-blood is an ability that I enjoyed using before. The higher the level of the swordsmanship skill, and the higher the mana is, the stronger the sword becomes.”

The ability to grow stronger according to the caster’s growth.

And other than that, there were a lot of pretty good options when I read it before.

“Plus, the necessity to purchase an item related to the sword disappears too.”

“That’s correct. You can pretend not to use a sword and suddenly summon it to make a surprise attack.”

In fact, no other ability was as important as this for someone who uses a sword.

After exchanging a conversation, the Iron-Blooded Monarch smiled as if her mood lightened up.

“I guess it was worth it to use the points I’ve accumulated so far to give you the gift.”

She was clearly expecting something from me in her tone, emphasizing that she had made a loss by granting me power.

I immediately realized what it was and opened my mouth.

“Thank you. It’ll definitely be a power that’ll aid me forever.”

The Iron-blooded Monarch twitched the corners of her mouth and curled her eyebrows.

“You don’t have to mention it… doing this much is nothing for my precious contractor.”

After saying that, the Iron-blooded Monarch picked up the snack on the table and chewed it.

Following that, I also took a bite of the snack and chewed it, and she soon opened her mouth again.

“Now that I’ve given you the power that I wanted to give, let’s talk about something else.”

“…?”

“What I’m going to talk about now will spend your rights to your questions. Would that be alright with you?”

“How come?”

“Unlike other information, the tower will impose sanctions on me if I tell you these without any cost.”

Information important enough that the tower could impose sanctions on her?

I answered while nodding my head as it definitely wouldn’t be some kind of nonsense.

“Sure. I didn’t really have anywhere to use it, so I just kept on stacking it.”

It was just then when I answered so—

「 All question rights held by the challenger, Han Sungyeun, will be consumed. 」

“…!?”

I was bewildered by the message that all of the question rights I had were used up instantly.

‘…Just how important is this story going to be?’

I had a lot of question rights left since there had been very few cases where I used the question.

However, as soon as all the question rights were used, I noticed that the story from now on wouldn’t be anything ordinary.

“…”

At that, as I looked at the Iron-blooded Monarch with a serious expression, she soon opened her mouth.

“Previously, you must’ve killed a challenger from another world on the 9th floor.”

“…Yes. It was the first time I met a challenger from a Murim world, so I had a hard time too.”

I could still clearly remember the name of the challenger I encountered at that time.

Baek Sunhak.

The old man who introduced himself as the Elder of the Murim alliance was a challenger from another world who appeared on the 9th floor.

“…But why are you mentioning that all of a sudden?”

“It seems that the title of the old tiger became a problem.”

“…?”

“Because of his title, Elder of the Murim Alliance, a person is looking for you from the dimension of Murim.”

“What do you mean…”

“It must be so-called revenge.”

He just died because he failed on an intrusion to a floor, but an act of revenge?

I scoffed, aghast at those absurd remarks.

“Don’t tell me the Murim alliance is some unpeaceful organization?”

It could be if it was made up of unscrupulous people like gangsters, Yakuza, or Mafia.

However…

“No, in fact, they’re rather a group of moderates in the Murim, though…”

I spit out curses to the response of the Iron-blooded Monarch’s begrudging answer.

“How can those sons of bitches be…”

To think that they’re making a fuss pointing a blade at me, blabbering things about payback or whatever.

Moreover, the ones doing this act were moderate organizations in the dimension of Murim.

All kinds of cuss words came to my mind in an instant, but I put up with it and opened my mouth.

“…So are you saying that the Murim alliance is after me to kill me?”

In conclusion, she said that someone was searching for me, so I thought it was the Murim alliance.

And as much as they were making a fuss about paying the grudge back, I thought they’d send me a tracer to kill me.

But that wasn’t it.

“That’s not it.”

“…What?”

“The Murim alliance is rather unsettled, and I heard that they’re just busy trying to take the place of the man in power.”

“…”

“The Murim alliance will search for you and remember you, but they’ll not make a huge movement to eliminate you right now.”

In short, it means that they’re more busy acting to occupy the vacant place of Baek Sunhak than killing me.

After hearing that, it became even harder to figure out who was trying to kill me.

“Then who the hell is trying to kill me?”

I asked the question without hesitation, but the answer that returned was an answer I couldn’t have imagined.

“The Namgung noble family.”

“…?”

“The Sword Dragon of the Namgung noble family is looking for you.”

“…”

Someone I’d never met was looking for me.

***

[Translator – Ramen ]

[Proofreader – DVN-L ]

***

I wonder how much time had passed?

After the Iron-blooded Monarch gave some explanations, I could grasp the situation.

“…So, to sum things up, a noble family that’s like a pillar of the Murim alliance recognized me, and they’re running wild to kill me, huh.”

“To be precise, the only aristocratic family doing that is the Namgung noble family, and even within them, only Namgung Hyuk, the young master, is looking for you.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

It was really ridiculous.

To think a guy who had nothing to do with me was looking to kill me when the Murim alliance wasn’t doing anything…

‘How in the world does the way of thinking work in the people of the Murim?’

I was getting goosebumps at this point.

I was on the verge of death due to Baek Sunhak’s preemptive attack, but I had a narrow escape from death.

But the fact that Murim still had justification to kill me was surprising.

However, the Iron-blooded Monarch spoke as though that was natural.

“I don’t know why he’s looking for you… but when Murim searches for a person, it doesn’t really end well.”

In those words, the experience of having heard of numerous incidents was on it.

“Then that means I won’t have a good ending like the countless precedents.”

“Something like that. I think you should be prepared for a battle of life and death at least.”

“…”

“Don’t tell me, are you acquainted with that young master of the Namgung noble family?”

“I’ll be damned if that’s true. The young master of the Namgung noble family is a greenhorn who’s just twenty years old.”

The Iron-Blooded Monarch scoffed and brushed her frizzy hair backward.

“I’ve been an administrator for several decades. The years I’ve lived from him are completely different.”

“Then how do you know about the young master of the Namgung noble family?”

“There’s a way to know everything. Well, that doesn’t matter, so let’s move on….”

The Iron-blooded Monarch evaded the point all of a sudden, narrowed her eyes, and said.

“The young master of the Namgung noble family is probably several times stronger than you.”

“…”

“He must be a fairly-high level challenger since he has reached the 20th floor in the Tower of Trials.”

“20th floor? Then don’t I have a chance at winning?”

“Not at all.”

When I tilted my head at her confident denial, quickly, she answered.

“The challengers of the Murim dimension are at an entirely new level in terms of the strength of their own body. It’s a world in which only those who’ve been insane about martial arts have lived for hundreds and thousands of years. As it’s a world full of people who have honed their strength and become godlike, no other world can look down on the effectiveness of their method for enhancing their strength.”

Hearing that, I had no other choice but to keep my mouth shut.

A world where hundreds and thousands of years have been devoted to martial arts.

How strong would the ones who grew up in such a world be?

‘Even Baek Sunhak, although his physical abilities and skills were limited, he still overwhelmed me.’

What was worse was that it was after defeating that black knight I met on the 5th floor.

I was prepared, and I had the confidence that I wouldn’t be as helpless as before.

But I couldn’t help but marvel at an old man’s unbelievable strength.

He tried to give me death till the very end by increasing his speed to impede my movement.

On the other hand, I was almost defeated even though I was equipped with a strength that didn’t match the floor level with an ability that specializes in growth.

That difference was huge, and I quickly accepted it calmly.

“Then he’s on a completely different level from me, huh.”

“It’ll be difficult for you to survive if you face him directly on a floor.”

It was only for a moment that I laughed bitterly at the death sentence I had not heard in a long time.

“But it’s not entirely impossible, so I’ll give you the information I know for now.”

As soon as she started talking about the young master of the Namgung noble family, I started to concentrate.

The words that followed were something to be listened to carefully.

Sword Dragon of the Blue Sky.

He’s a person who uses the grand nickname, which meant dragon of the sword that rules the blue sky.

At the same time, he was the next master of the family who’d inherit the Namgung noble family, a famous family in Murim.

And his real name is Namgung Hyuk, and there was no one who wouldn’t know his name when you mentioned it to any challengers from the Murim dimension.

His swordsmanship would surpass A-rank in terms of skill level, and so on and so forth. A lot of talks were exchanged.

Only after devising a plan against him did the conversation’s heat cool down, and the Iron-blooded Monarch gave permission to leave.

“…It seems I have told you everything I can, so you may leave now.”

I nodded at the voice that seemed to have achieved all her goals.

Originally, I was in the middle of checking the rewards in the waiting room, so I didn’t have time to stay any longer.

“Alright. Then I’ll see you in the waiting room on the 12th floor next time we meet.”

The Iron-blooded Monarch responded with satisfaction to my brief words…

“I’ll be looking forward to your future.”

「 Moving to the 11th floor waiting room .」

Then, a message appeared in my sight, and the place changed instantly.

From a medieval-style hut full of gloominess to a desolate waiting room.

“…”

Of course, I was quietly adapting to it and was going to continue what I had to do, but…

Ring! Ring! Ring!

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ invites you to the administrator territory. 」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ invites you to the admini… 」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ invites you to… 」 

At the invitation messages that popped up in an instant, I had no choice but to stop what I was about to do.

The administrator White Crane Sword Saint had sent me an invitation.

Not just once, but countless times.

——