[“Life” has leveled up.]
[“Life” is trying to talk to you.]
This situation differed from that with Death. A warm light appeared this time.
Death screamed at this sight. It wanted to grow Lee Gun as the god of calamity.
[“Death” says hurry up and use its power.]
[“Death” says to ignore Abundance. “Let’s hurry up and go home. You can wash up and go to sleep.”]
Despite Death’s efforts, another face resembling the Scream mask appeared in the golden-green magical energy. Of course, it looked quite different from Death’s face.
Death’s face looked like that of the devil. It had wicked, half-moon-shaped eyes, and the corner of its mouth was ripped like a red mask. If one were being charitable, one could say the face looked mischievous.
On the other hand, Life felt very mature in comparison. Its face had no smile. It instead had a stern expression as if it was shunning evil.
This was the second stage of Life, which made Death apoplectic.
[“Death” despairs.]
[Why did the Serpent Bearer have to swallow Abundance? It screams, “That damned Life opened its eyes.”]
Lee Gun contemptuously laughed at the notification. Is that the reason this bastard kept saying Abundance shouldn’t be used as an offering?
‘Well, I had a rough idea what was going on.’
Of course, Death’s reaction was understandable.
‘Death and Life have a hard time coexisting with each other.’
As expected…
[“Life” hates “Death.”]
[“Life” presses down on the runaway power of “Death.”]
[The energy of Abundance is further developing the power of Life.]
[“Life” has become much stronger.]
[“Life” has become much stronger.]
[“Life” has become much stronger.]
[Any abilities or attributes related to Life will grow alongside Life.]
After being influenced by the energy, Lee Gun couldn’t hear Chun Sungjae’s cheer.
“Amazing! I’m overflowing with power! Uncle is the best!”
Abundance’s power had a connection to life energy. That was why the monarch had become an enormous source of power for Life. This inevitably influenced Chun Sungjae, the Zodiac Saint of Life. The effect was quite staggering.
[The power of Super Regeneration(S) has increased.]
[The power of Creation Workshop has increased.]
[The power of Get Hit Instead of Me has increased.]
[The basic stamina of the Constructs affiliated with the Serpent Bearer has increased.]
[Their mobility has increased. The Constructs will not easily tire out now.]
[The basic defense of the Constructs affiliated with the Serpent Bearer has increased.]
[The total amount of magical energy the Serpent Bearer possesses has increased by a little.]
When Life grew in power, all the stats related to life preservation skyrocketed. The main stats related to survival were defense, stamina, and magical energy.
When Death had grown in power, most of the stats related to damage and curses had increased.
‘Death is the spear, and Life is the zombie… No, it is the shield.’
That wasn’t all. When Death reached the second stage, a new skill had appeared. It was the same for Life.
[Revive]
Anyway, “Life” had fixed a common problem for Lee Gun. His magical energy had increased in quantity by a bit. If he could continue to raise Life like this, his lack of magical energy could be eliminated. However, there was a problem.
Life seemed dissatisfied with Lee Gun.
[“Life” is disappointed in its owner.]
“…!”
Since it was a different reaction than Death’s reaction, Lee Gun flinched. Of course, he had an idea of what the divine status was referring to.
Recently, he had used the power of Death a lot and had killed numerous beings. He had even wiped out hundreds of millions of lives in one move. That was probably why Life was disappointed.
It was as expected. The solemn Life’s expression was a sight to behold.
[“Life” says living beings shouldn’t be killed with a single blow like that.]
[They won’t be able to feel pain if they are cut down in a single blow.]
[Living beings realize they are alive when they feel pain.]
[It says this is why living beings shouldn’t be killed at once. Life grumbles.]
“?!” Lee Gun’s eyes turned round. Did he just hear wrong? It seemed he didn’t.
Death despaired.
[“Death” says that this is why it asked you to choose itself. It states Life has a bankrupt character, and that won’t go well with Master.]
[“Life” is offended. Feelings and sensations are felt when one is alive. They are something precious. It is angry, saying that Death is the devil that kills everything. It does not want to keep company with such a being.]
[“Death” feels aggrieved and asks who is the real devil in this case.]
[“Death” says they should get rid of everything, including Life!]
In the end, the two divine statuses started bickering over who would be more helpful to the Serpent Bearer.
Lee Gun was baffled. Whether it was Life or Death didn’t matter. Both were nutjobs.
Suddenly, a voice spoke to Lee Gun as if this was to be expected.
[The Virgo says, “Divine Status is part of a god. Of course, they would resemble their master in personality.”]
[The toothless Leo laughs in derision. It says your Divine statuses are just like you.]
[The Sagittarius says the Serpent Bearer personality was put on display. He claws at the ground, saying the Serpent Bearer should come here fast.]
Lee Gun got angry, and his eyebrows twitched. However, it didn’t matter. He didn’t care what the gods said. He just had to evolve his Divine status this way. When he reached the final stages, he’d have the strongest attack and strongest defense.
[Only one of the two Divine statuses can reach the final domain.]
[The disposition to reach the end first will go through the final awakening.]
These words intrigued Lee Gun.
‘In the end, I have to choose one.’
This was why the two Divine statuses insisted he pick one of them.
At that moment…
“!”
Lee Gun’s eyebrows rose when an unknown substance twitched under him. It was so small that he couldn’t see it well, but that was the Abundance monarch!
After suffering under the Gluttony skill, the monarch was desperately crawling across the floor. It was trying to run away under Lee Gun’s eyes.
The monarch ground its teeth. The unbearable pain was a secondary problem.
‘My power was stolen. This is serious.’
After all, the Abundance monarch was in charge of creating monsters for the unknown civilization. It possessed crazy proliferative power akin to that of a cockroach. That was why the twelve Zodiacs had given up trying to conquer the unknown civilization.
Abundance was the king of life. It grew babies into adults and the adults into the ancient-ranks. It was the one that instilled their will to fight.
And what would happen if the power of birth couldn’t be used anymore?
‘The twelve Zodiacs and the humans will dare think about raiding us.’
The humans focused on defense for a reason. They stayed within their domes because of the number of troops they had to confront.
Abundance’s power could endlessly increase the number of troops on its side. But what would happen if there was a limit to the number of monsters?
‘It won’t be good.’
An endless war and a war with an endpoint were two very different things.
Like the birds in birdcages, the humans had been trapped within the domes. Now they would choose to open the domes and come out of them. Mere humans would try to challenge them! This was why the monarch had to get out of there.
Kwah-jeek!
[Kuhk!]
Lee Gun laughed as he stepped on the flea. “Where are you running away, bastard? This might be perfect timing.”
When the two Divine statuses realized the monarch was still alive, their powers shrugged into the sky.
[The two Divine statuses are overjoyed.]
[“Life” is ecstatic that it will be able to make the monarch feel living pain.]
[“Death” is excited by the prospect of killing the monarch again.]
The monarch gritted its teeth when the two powers raged.
[Do not look down on the power of Abundance!]
As soon as it spoke, the barrier around Seoul started to emit light.
“It is the barrier!”
Although Abundance’s barrier was shaking, it was still intact. The monarch laughed as if things were going to plan.
[Look! The light! This barrier was made by my clone. The subordinate you sent will get eaten, and he will be brought to me as nutrients! As expected, an SS-rank human is different!]
Hugo’s complexion suddenly changed. The only SS-rank that Lee Gun had sent out was Goat. Hugo was about to contact Goat when…
Kwah-jeek!
A strange light started to appear from the barrier, and Lee Gun grinned.
* * *
Around that time…
Kwahng! Kwahng!
To catch Abundance and gather tributes for their Zodiacs, several hundred disciples had arrived in Seoul, and they couldn’t hide their shock.
“A-Aren’t they the Archer disciples?”
“Uh! Yeah.”
Their gazes were planted on the large plaza. The plaza was filled with monster corpses, and the Archer disciples were fighting there.
Of course, those several hundred disciples weren’t surprised to see the scarce Archer disciples, who were famous for being beautiful.
“What the hell? They aren’t supposed to be that strong!”
“They are melting the monsters!”
There were Goat, Lee Jaewon, and the youngest disciples who Lee Gun favored, a total of five disciples. And these five disciples were slaughtering monsters that needed several hundred disciples needed to fight.
[You have gained a massive amount of EXP.]
[You have gained a massive amount of EXP.]
[Part of the EXP has been transferred to the Serpent Bearer.]
Their skills were frightening. Even if Goat was an SS-rank and Lee Jaewon was an S-rank, it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“What is that destructive power?”
“They are way too different from their normal selves!”
Their destructive capabilities didn’t make sense even if their Zodiac had grown in power.
Joseph, the member of the Ten Stars from the Taurus temple, had come here leading the battle-type disciples. He furrowed his brows.
‘Even if their Zodiac’s blessing got stronger, there is no way they should have gotten this strong so abruptly.’
Of course, the Sagittarius temple did possess skilled disciples compared to their limited numbers, but…
“What happened? They weren’t like this a week ago…”
The other disciples soon realized the secret.
“Weapons!”
Those disciples were shocked by the weapons in the hands of the Archer disciples.
“Crazy! Those are SS-rank weapons!”
Yes, Goat and Lee Jaewon were holding new bows, both SS-rank.
“I’m sure of it! They are coming up as SS-ranks!”
A man wearing a glass-shaped appraisal holy item spoke out in shock.
Aside from the royal holy items, the world had only ten SS-rank holy items. They were the best available items.
This was why those disciples were shocked.
“No way! Aren’t SS-rank items supposed to be patented items that only the Capricorn’s Genius Workshop can make?!”
SS-rank items were so expensive and hard to make that the Capricorn’s master craftsmen were very territorial about them. Even the Zodiac Saints had to pamper the master craftsmen to get weapons for themselves.
So how did the last rank temple have those? That wasn’t all.
“What the hell? The others are holding S-rank weapons…?”
“What? Are you playing with me? They don’t have enough money to buy B-rank equipment! Do you realize how expensive S-rank items are?”
“Ah… I do remember hearing that Lee Gun-nim was going to make weapons for the Sagittarius temple…”
“What?! Lee Gun-nim made those?”
Those words gave them a mental breakdown. Recently, a rumor was going around that Lee Gun was going to make the Archer disciples weapons, but everyone had just laughed it off.
“It was said that they are so poor that they asked someone other than the Capricorn temple to make their equipment…”
What was this destructive power?
“Hey! If we’re being honest, aren’t these weapons more powerful than the ones made by the Genius Workshop?”
“Are you kidding me? We are talking about the Genius Workshop here!”
The Genius Workshop and the Capricorn temple were in charge of making the weapons for humanity.
“The Capricorn checks the work of the Genius Workshop. Holy crap! He blocked the teeth of a monster with the bow! How durable is that weapon!”
Lee Gun had given Goat the unknown civilization’s version of the bible. Goat could find the weakness of their enemies through the Commandment. He furrowed his brows.
‘Isn’t this a bible? They are similar to us?’
Of course, the power and the abilities were completely different.
That was why he found it amazing, but this didn’t change the fact that he had a golden opportunity at his hands.
‘We’ll kill all of them’
Kwah-jeek!
Goat’s arrow broke apart Abundance’s barrier.
* * *
The monarch was shocked when it realized its barrier had been broken.
[This is…!]
Lee Gun laughed. “It seems your ace in the hole is gone.”
[…!!!]
The monarch was taken aback.
Suddenly, Chun Sungjae yelled out as if he remembered something, “Oh yeah, Uncle! The Pisces Saint’s soul is inside its body!”
“What?!”
Hugo was surprised, but Lee Gun seemed to have expected this.
“I did feel a familiar energy. That is why I was going to tear open its innards”
“Are you sure you didn’t just want to make a bag with it?”
The monarch trembled when it heard that it would be made into a bag.
‘Shit! I underestimated them too much.’
The problem was that the time had yet to come, so Abundance had infiltrated the human territory quietly. It had planned to spread the seeds of nourishment inside the human territory. And this meant it had to possess the body of a human.
‘I thought the human body would be enough.’
To completely fool the dome, Abundance had trapped itself within a human body. This created a grave situation where it couldn’t run away.
‘This can’t happen. If something happens to me, the invasion plan will run into problems.’
Therefore, Abundance yelled something to create an opening.
[Yes! That woman is your girlfriend, right?]
“!”
It laughed.
[The one to kill that woman was Time! I’ll call it out for you! So you should let me— Koohk!!]
Lee Gun grabbed it by the neck, surprising Abundance.
[W…Wait a moment…!]
[“Death” has activated. The function of the possession magic has been killed, so it can’t exit the human’s body.]
[The trapped soul will be obliterated]
[Wait a moment! Nothing good will come out of this for you! Wait— Kuhk!]
Lee Gun let his fist fly before the monarch could end its words.
Kwah-jeek!
Abundance was turned into a pulp, the first splendid achievement toward gaining victory for humanity.
