[Did you guys miss me? Thanks to your great achievements, I was promoted to the guide in Act One, Stage Two. I did it! ٩(✿╹◡╹✿)۶ ]
People had gathered with edgy looks on their faces.
[I know you have already met the participants in other stages. Those of you who are quick-witted would have already realized that the ends of the road in your stage are connected to others. Act One, Stage Two will proceed by combining five stages into one. We will place your stage in the center since you have made the most outstanding accomplishments, so the four stages around you will join you. So from now on, everyone is on the same stage. It’s easy to understand, right?]
The Spirit seemed genuinely happy as it was flying lightly with a smile.
[The quest will be carried out in the central stage, which is yours, so we prepared a special privilege to help you prevent potential danger. Get ready. Here’s the bonus!]
Although people now had the authority to choose the type of silver box they received, no one hurriedly opened it since the Spirit had turned red at that exact moment. However, they had no way of canceling it. The notification message had stated that the System would randomly open one after twenty-four hours had passed.
Seon-Hu already knew that this was the same thing as the dungeon boxes. Things were the same as they were in the past. Act One, Stage Two started on the central stage, and the System offered a silver box, calling it a privilege. Seon-Hu’s previous misfortune had begun from the curse that had come out of the box around this time.
The consequences had been disastrous back then as it had happened right after he had barely managed to grab that woman’s attention and had just started participating in the group work. He had been ostracized until the curse was removed. Due to that, his growth had been delayed for a long time, and the incident snowballed until the end of the Stage of Advent. That was why he couldn’t upgrade anything higher than E-class until the very end.
However, Seon-Hu was now in a situation where he had nothing to gain from the silver box as his class was too high. If there was, then it would have been…
A curse.
[* Storage box]
[Vishnu’s Purification Ring has been removed.]
[Vishnu’s Purification Ring (Item)
Effect: Eliminate one phobia from the user.
Physical Defense: 2500/2500
Magical Defense: 3000/3000
Class: A
Cooldown time: 7 days]
If Woo Yeon-Hee had been around, Seon-Hu wouldn’t need this item since she could quickly resolve any problems that the villagers could cause due to a fear status effect.
Naturally, Seon-Hu actually missed Woo Yeon-Hee for more than just that.
What if she is struggling to save everyone? What if she has been beguiled by the fancy charm of the vipers in suits? Has she secured the inventory system, the hidden reward in Act One, Stage One?
It was extremely unlikely for Seon-Hu to encounter her in Act One, Stage Two. If she had been there, she would have already come into the center stage looking for him.
Seon-Hu stopped thinking and chose the box. It was obvious what he would get as stat upgrades from a silver box were useless at his current class, and he already had ten insignias already. He expected he’d receive a useless E-class item and planned to distribute it to the villagers.
[Your silver box (item) has been opened.]
[You have obtained the status effect: Phobia (Fire).]
The majority of my skills have a flame attribute, but fire phobia?
Although he had prepared countermeasures, he couldn’t help but frown.
[You have used Vishnu’s Purification Ring.]
[Phobia (Fire) has been removed.]
When the light from Seon-Hu’s fingers spread throughout his entire body, the villagers began to select boxes. It was a relief when they received what they desired, but they screamed ‘ah!’ when useless contents came out. Any curses from the silver boxes didn’t immediately cause problems.
Seong-Il and Soo-Ah approached Seon-Hu after he gave them a signal to come. They didn’t seem depressed. Seon-Hu exited out his inventory window. Meanwhile, Seong-Il and Soo-Ah couldn’t grasp the situation other than the fact that some people didn’t get what they wanted from the box. They didn’t realize that there were curses that could drive them and their colleagues to death at a critical moment.
Seong-Il commented, “If you want to upgrade your stat class, you should open at least a gold box. I got a skill, and it’s related to tanking again. I think I’m one hundred percent destined to be a tanker. I wonder if the System is discriminating me for my looks.”
“I was able to strengthen my Health,” Soo-Ah reported.
She was looking at Seong-Il enviously because the fact that he was now aiming for the gold box meant that all of his stats had reached D-class.
[We can’t move on until everyone chooses the privilege. Please hurry.]
A notification message pressing people to open a box appeared. Seong-Il and Soo-Ah had noticed the presence of Phobias in people’s conversations from all over the place. Some of the insignias that were being traded in the village could cure phobias. Therefore, they had expected to face such a curse in the future, but they didn’t know it would happen now.
A middle-aged woman, who had never lost her smile during this difficult time, was looking around with a grimace on her face. Soo-Ah had remembered that there were very few insignias that could treat phobias. She told Seong-Il instead of Seon-Hu as the latter was cold regarding any village affairs.
“Oppa, I think this is a serious problem. We should figure out which people are cursed with phobias and the details of those curses.”
“Okay, let’s do that in a bit,” Seong-Il brushed aside her suggestion, and Soo-Ah looked back towards the Spirit again.
[I hope you cheer up after getting the privilege! Let’s start Act One, Stage Two now. One last piece of advice: I recommend that you guys work together with others at different stages. Otherwise, you will fail.]
Dudududu.
The ground rumbled, and it reminded people of the time when the last wave’s boss monster had showed up. It was natural for everyone to get ready for combat, and everyone, regardless of gender or age, grabbed a weapon.
At that time, Seon-Hu whispered to Seong-Il’s ear, “…If I don’t come back, find Mary.”
“What? Mary?” Seong-Il couldn’t ask more because a huge spire had soared up from the middle of the intersection of the village roads. Hideous plants that moved like snakes were wrapped around it.
What the hell is that? What quest should we complete?
Suddenly, the scared group saw something flying quickly. It was Seon-Hu. Every time he swung his sword with flames and jumped around the outer walls of the spire with lightning streaks, the burned plants fell to the ground. The plants were obviously capable of thinking as they continued moving toward Seon-Hu like the boss monster’s tentacles until they had turned into ashes.
Soon after, the hidden doors were revealed when Seon-Hu peeled off all the plants surrounding the spire. There were a total of seven floors. They could use the outer stairs to reach the next floor, and there was an inversely proportional number of doors on each floor. There were seven on the first floor, six on the second floor, and one on the top floor.
Seon-Hu didn’t even look back. He walked directly to the seventh floor and opened the door there. The blue light flashed for a second and disappeared, then his anxious face vanished.
Then… Thud!!!
The upper part of the spire where Seon-Hu had entered suddenly began to collapse. Then something jumped up at a high speed and covered the ground with a gigantic shadow.
***
The Eight Evils and the Eight Virtues were skilled in all aspects, but they still had their own major power.
First Evil: The Man Who Overcomes Adversity (Trait)
Second Evil: Isis’s Gaze (Skill)
Third Evil: Skeletal Dragon that even the Living Worship (Item)
Fourth Evil: Zeus’s Thunder Spear (Item)
Fifth Evil: Chen’s Shape (Skill)
Sixth Evil: Seth’s Death Wave (Skill)
Seventh Evil: Shiva’s Knife (Skill)
Eighth Evil: Xi Wangmu’s[1] Ten Thousand-Year-Old Spider (Item)
First Virtue: Devi’s Sword (Skill)
Second Virtue: Osiris’s Domain (Skill)
Third Virtue: Clown’s Dagger (Item)
Fourth Virtue: Hera’s Lunacy (Skill)
Fifth Virtue: Passion (Trait)
Sixth Virtue: Odin’s Wrath (Skill)
Seventh Virtue: Lakshmi’s[2] Lucky Dagger (Item)
Eighth Virtue: Shakyamuni’s[3] Kidney (Skill)
Seon-Hu was certain that the Third Evil had obtained the Skeletal Dragon that even the Living Worship during the Stage of Advent. The item, which was deeply related to Doom Entegasto, would have never come out of a box. It was considered an item, but it was actually a means of transportation. It was different from a vehicle that one could ride by using or oppressing with the Ruler’s Ring. The Eighth Evil’s Xi Wangmu’s Ten Thousand-Year-Old Spider, which was considered the best ride an Awakened could get from a box, was far inferior to the Third Evil’s main item.
***
The joints of its bones moved slowly, and flames were blazing where its eyeballs were supposed to be. When it rushed to land on the earth, a fierce wind blew out in all directions. People looked at Seong-Il, Odin’s henchman and the second most powerful guy in the village, with deathly pale faces.
However, Seong-Il was also nervous. He felt like his arms, including the one that hadn’t been regenerated, were shaking. When he had first witnessed Odin’s actual power and when the last wave’s boss monster that was the size of a building had appeared, he had thought he would never face something more scary ever again in his life. However, a more terrifying thing actually existed.
The villagers turned more ghastly pale when they saw Seong-Il trembling. This had happened as soon as Odin opened the door on the last floor of the spire and entered.
Then, did Odin die?
Seong-Il had never thought of such a thing, but Odin had mentioned one thing before heading to the spire.
“…If I don’t come back, find Mary.”
Seong-Il didn’t know who Mary was, but it was clear that Odin had prepared for the possibility of death.
“We… we should fight…” he sputtered.
“What about Odin?” Soo-Ah asked.
“He will be back. He is O… Odin…”
He couldn’t help but stutter.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! I can’t seem to snap out of it.”
Seong-Il was doing at least better than the others. The moment the monster had spread its wings made out of thick and huge bones, everyone began to run away.
“We should fight!!! This will only make us all go die!”
Seong-Il snatched the collar of the woman who was running away, then he realized that no matter how much he screamed, they would never listen. He was barely holding onto himself as he actually wanted to run away with them.
The giant monster was getting ready to fly again with its skeletal wings stretched out! It must have been thinking about how to kill people while debating whether to crush them with its big claws, burn them to death with the blue flames in its eyes, or violently tear them into pieces with its sharp teeth.
Seong-Il’s past memories crossed his mind.
No one can stop that. Only Odin can handle it, but he is…
Then, he saw something rolling off the monster’s back.
“O…Odin! It’s Odin!” Seong-Il shouted at Soo-Ah out of surprise, then rushed toward the monster. He was only thinking about saving Odin before the monster crushed or ate him. As he narrowed the distance between them, the monster moved its wing by turning its huge head toward Seong-Il. For an instant, he got a weird feeling. The monster looked like a mother bird trying to protect its babies. It didn’t appear to be trying to keep its prey that it had caught from other competitors.
Thud!
The monster’s wing bones clung to the ground and made a loud noise. It was also a move to block Seong-Il from approaching Odin. Then, the flames blazing in the monster’s eyes were warning Seong-Il not to come closer. He stopped abruptly. His body shook horribly just from facing it from a long distance.
Is it actually trying to protect Odin?
Seong-Il focused his eyes on Odin, who was slightly visible from between the wing bones. Strangely, Odin looked very different from when he had entered the spire just an hour ago. Above all, his hair was as long as a woman’s.
1. The queen of the immortals in Daoist mythology of China. ☜
2. The Hindu Goddess of wealth, wellbeing and prosperity. ☜
3. Also known as Gautama Buddha, was the founder of Buddhism. ☜