Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant

In that sense, he’d originally planned to take on the class quest first.

Because he already knew the content.

But then the Dragon Egg suddenly started hatching and the plan got thrown off.

'Well, if you really get technical, Dragon Blood wasn’t in the plan I made in the first place.'

He’d obtained Dragon Blood in the Tower of Trials in a way he truly hadn’t expected.

So he wasn’t especially dissatisfied.

The order just got pushed back, that was all. It wouldn’t change the fact that he’d still handle the class quest he intended to do.

So for now, he decided to check the unlocked condition information first.

He started with Dragon Blood.

[ Dragon Blood ]

# Even if the bearer of Dragon Blood was not born as a dragon, depending on their effort, they can enjoy the power a dragon possesses.

# Lv.1 - Dragon Blood: Intimidation (S), Dragon’s Spirit (S).

# Lv.2 - Dragon Armor: Dragonkin (S), Dragon Skin (S).

# Lv.3 - Dragon Grow: Dragon Bone (S), Dragon Body (S), Dragon Sense (S).

# Lv.4 - Dragon Egg: Dragon Egg (S).

# Lv.5 - [ ??? ]: Locked.

└ Unlock Conditions

1. Reach level 300.

2. Answer the call of ???.

'Answer the call of ????'

What is that supposed to be?

Who is ????

There was no way to know.

There wasn’t even the bare minimum explanation.

Because it was information he’d never heard even from Dragon Demon, the only player in his previous life who had Dragon Blood.

Still, since the unlock condition was in bold, it looked like the moment he pressed it, the quest would proceed.

Su-ho hesitated for a moment.

'I should start after the hatching finishes, right?'

That would be better, wouldn’t it?

Yeah.

He didn’t know what would happen, so he should firmly take care of what he could firmly take care of first, then move.

Having made his decision, Su-ho sat down and waited patiently for the hatching to end.

[ Time until the Dragon Egg fully hatches: 70%. ]

[ Time until the Dragon Egg fully hatches: 51%. ]

[ Time until the Dragon Egg fully hatches: 33%. ]

[ Time until the Dragon Egg fully hatches: 12%. ]

...

Time passed.

He wasn’t bored, because of the tension.

And then, finally, it was when 1% remained.

[ Time until the Dragon Egg fully hatches: 1%. ]

At that moment.

[ ??? is calling you. ]

A system notification.

And at the same time, regardless of Su-ho’s will, the second unlock condition triggered and summoned him like it was abducting him into an unknown world.

*

The darkness that had covered his vision lifted, and his sight returned.

He wasn’t dizzy.

He was just a little... no, a lot flustered.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in a place he’d never seen before, not the Subspace House.

'Where am I?'

He looked around.

The newly arrived place looked like a forest.

No related system notification appeared.

What was this?

There were too few clues.

After thinking for a while, Su-ho started basic armament by activating his skills.

[ Summoning Heracles’s Club. ]

[ Blood Armor activates. ]

[ Blessing activates. ]

[ Holy Enchant activates. ]

[ Mana Detection activates. ]

[ Endurance activates. ]

[ Enhancement activates. ]

[ Wildsmith’s Eye activates. ]

[ Sword Energy activates. ]

Basic full armament.

After fully arming himself, he felt a little more at ease.

But then, at the moment Mana Detection activated, things that hadn’t been visible before finally began to come into view.

It was a faint, flowing current of energy. When he focused his senses and grasped what it was, it looked like the kind of energy players used—like mana.

'But to be precise, it’s not mana.'

Denser than mana, thicker... something with a packed, concentrated density.

Similar forces were the demonic energy he’d felt very briefly, and the True Mana he’d obtained recently.

Those energies stretched through the air like spiderwebs.

So Su-ho’s gaze followed those long, drawn-out strands, and before long, he could tell they were tangled like a bundle of nerves on a certain cliff.

'But it’s blocked over there?'

It was exactly as it seemed.

The place where those unknown energy lines were tangled like nerve bundles wasn’t a cave, but a blocked wall that looked like a cliff face.

And yet, as if something was there, they were tangled in massive quantity.

What was it?

They said seeing once was better than hearing a hundred times, so he approached first.

There wasn’t anywhere else that looked particularly special.

When Su-ho finally reached the blocked wall and reached out his hand toward that nerve-bundle tangle...

Bzzzt!

Sparks flew.

It was only for a moment, but as if he’d been electrocuted, the hand he’d touched with was charred black.

'Well, would you look at that?'

So there really is something here?

Having found a direction to proceed, Su-ho stepped back.

Then, this time, he examined the wall again from a slightly different perspective.

'The energy lines are tangled in a mass, but when you approach, it reacts with strong rejection, like it’s trying to block access.'

Then even if there is something beyond this, that means this isn’t a wall—it’s a barrier.

He didn’t know who ??? was, but he could tell it was someone with a pretty nasty personality, because this was the place that thing had called him to.

'But if it’s a quest, I’ll gladly play along.'

Su-ho raised his sword, compressed True Mana into it, and swung with all his might.

[ Enhancement activates. ]

[ Diamond Cutting activates. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ Diamond Cutting’s power grows stronger. ]

Bzzzt!

What he chose first was Diamond Cutting.

Because it was far stronger than Sky Severing.

But even though it was an attack he’d swung after packing in True Mana as tightly as he could, the barrier repelled it, even bouncing off the shock wave option from Heracles’s Club, and nullified the attack as if absorbing it.

'So a simple cut isn’t enough?'

Then what if he didn’t touch the barrier itself?

No matter what, the host who invited him would be behind the barrier.

Su-ho pulled his sword back again.

Then he layered skills over it again and swung.

[ Enhancement activates. ]

[ Reverse Scale Slash activates. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ Reverse Scale Slash’s power grows stronger. ]

Whooaaah!

He didn’t know how deep it went beyond the barrier.

But he swung his sword, estimating as far as he could.

However.

...Bzzzzzt!

For the first brief moment, it seemed like there was no sound at all, but before that thought could even finish, a harsh frictional screech rang out.

And just like before, the attack was nullified and disappeared.

“So that’s how it is.”

He’d used two methods among his attacks that he believed absolutely had to work.

And neither worked.

Then there was only one thing left.

Su-ho lifted his sword again.

[ Enhancement activates. ]

And then.

Saaaaaah!

The air around Su-ho surged toward him in an instant.

A gigantic concentration of energy.

And just before Su-ho’s sword was about to discharge, the world in his sight was dyed in black and white.

At the same time, he began to see it.

A twisted, condensed rule—like a knot of laws—clumped within the barrier tangled like a nerve bundle: the Ring ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ of Runes.

'There!'

Su-ho swung his sword.

[ True Origin Slash activates. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ True Origin Slash’s power grows stronger. ]

Slash!

The arc he carved was clean.

The sword scar, too, was etched high into the air—and deep.

He could feel it. He’d definitely cut something.

So was that why?

Bzzzzzt!

A harsh screech rang out.

But this wasn’t the “absorb and nullify” defense he’d felt up to now.

He had cleanly struck the point of impact.

That point was the Ring of Runes.

So this was definitely a valid hit.

'How’s that?'

But then—

Kraaanng!!

A sound like a mirror shattering rang out, and a sensation spread as if it were reflecting back.

Damn it.

Just like with Shiva.

He’d definitely cut it properly, but it was shallow.

Was his power lacking?

Or was the technique’s level too low?

Maybe it was both.

Shit.

Without realizing it, he bit down hard on his lip.

If this had been the next step beyond True Origin Slash...!

At that moment, the corner of Su-ho’s mouth lifted.

“Ah. So the timing comes to me like this.”

The timing Su-ho was talking about.

That timing was the timing to raise the level of True Origin Slash.

True Origin Slash was a technique that cut not a target’s physical substance, but intangible laws hidden like an illusion.

That was why he couldn’t dare do something like repeated drilling and mastery.

Even Kim Seung-hwan didn’t work.

This was something he could only strike once he earned the System’s recognition.

So he thought the process of raising the form’s level would take a very long time.

Just as he’d felt when promoting Destruction Fist Art into Void Flow, the stronger he became, the harder it was to find an opponent who could make him grow.

And yet, unexpectedly, that timing had arrived right now.

“Fine. Let’s see you endure it to the end!”

With eyes gleaming with something that could’ve been joy or madness, Su-ho swung his sword.

[ True Origin Slash activates. ]