Chapter 23
Chapter 23 – 13th Ability (3)
Lee Gun’s eyes turned round when he heard the unexpected voice.
“...?”
Puhk!
[You have acquired special data(Saint rank)!]
- Blubber (F rank)
Puhk!
[You have acquired data.]
- Not Much Hair (S rank)
Puhk! Puhk puhk!
[You have acquired data.]
- Unbridled Greed for Wealth (C rank)
[You have acquired data.]
- Money is the greatest desire (C rank)
Puhk puhk puhk puhk!
[You have acquired Zodiac EXP.]
[You have acquired Zodiac EXP.]
[You have acquired Zodiac EXP.]
[You have acquired Zodiac EXP.]
“Jackpot! This is fucking sweet!” The surprising thing was the grin on Lee Gun’s lips. Of course, the secret password wouldn’t come out of this, but...
Puhk puhk puhk puhk puhk puhk puhk!
In the end, Hugo couldn’t stand by and watch what Lee Gun was doing. He shouted, “What the hell are you doing?"
Saints were contracted to their Zodiacs; they weren’t normal humans. This meant their bodies didn’t decompose at the same rate as normal humans. Of course, that "thing" could no longer be called a corpse.
Puhk puhk puhk!
“Fuck this fatty!”
“Hey. Stop it!”
Suddenly...
[Your Saint EXP has reached the 50,000 mark.]
[Your level has risen. (Lv. 2)]
[It’ll be automatically converted into points.]
[You have 3 points.]
[The remaining Saint EXP is 0.]
[You can use points to create a new skill or upgrade an existing skill.]
The next moment, something amazing happened.
The symbol that existed only on Lee Gun's left palm appeared on his right one too. This symbol was the one that had appeared on the magic circle when Lee Gun had opened his Creation Workshop. It confirmed that this symbol was the seal of the Serpent Bearer.
When Lee Gun stared at the unique symbol, the symbol moved and projected words above it.
《Upgradable Skills》
[Super Regeneration (F▶E)] (Needs 1 Point)
- Time for regeneration will get reduced. Duration will be increased by 10 seconds.
- The scale of regeneration will be increased.
[13th Sense(F▶E)] (Needs 1 Point)
- Amongst the senses of the snake, the vision ability will be upgraded. Duration will be increased by 30 seconds.
《Possible new Divine Skills that can be created》
[Act forbidden by the gods] (Needs 5 Points)
[Hundred Poison Resistance] (Needs 1 Point)
[Get hit instead of me] (Needs 2 Points)
[Create Holy Ground] (Needs 3 Points. Needs a prerequisite condition.)
[Subordination] (Needs 5 Points. Needs activation of Holy Ground)
It seemed Lee Gun would be able to use accumulated EXP to upgrade his skills. All the skills looked interesting, but one stood out to him. ‘Act forbidden by the gods?’ That wasn’t all.
[If you create new Divine skills, you will be able to utilize the Sheep Saint’s corpse.]
Hearing the voice, Lee Gun laughed in amusement. ‘I don’t think I have enough EXP yet.’
Hugo instinctively flinched when he saw his friend's evil smile.
In the end, Lee Gun threw caution to the wind. ‘Let’s level up a variety of skills.’ He released all the skills that needed only one point. The points were applied as soon as he thought of it.
[Skill allocation has been completed.]
- [Super Regeneration (E)] and [13th Sense(E)] have leveled up! [Hundred Poison Resistance (F)] has been acquired!
After the upgrades were finished, the symbol on his palm and the light disappeared at the same time.
‘Now, now.’ Lee Gun stomped on Yang Wei’s body. He had been able to upgrade his abilities in an unexpected manner. However...
Puhk!
[You have acquired data.]
- Sheep’s Symbol (A rank)
He still couldn’t comprehend what had brought on this development. It was to be expected. ‘EXP and data never come out from the dead.’
In the past, Lee Gun had tested this against dead monsters, but he had received the following notification.
[Your target is not fresh, so you cannot gain anything from it.]
[The data has been damaged.]
It meant he couldn’t extract data from corpses. So why was he able to extract these things from Yang Wei’s body?
‘Is he not dead? No, that isn’t the case.'
[Yang Wei]
[The level of your
Yang Wei was really dead. ‘Is it because the corpse is fresh?’
This sounded preposterous, but it was the most likely explanation. However, the reason for this development couldn’t be as simple as a corpse being fresh or spoiled. ‘There must be a different reason...’
At that moment, something happened.
Flash!
The holy item, which Lee Gun had made earlier, unexpectedly reacted. It was the horse with his name engraved on it. Lee Gun had placed it on the desk earlier.
[It has absorbed the magical energy of the
An odd expression appeared on Lee Gun's face when he heard those words. Of course, that horse was a holy item that absorbed magical energy. It absorbing magical energy wasn't strange, but...
‘Why did it have to be the Sheep Saint's energy?’ Lee Gun finally wised up to what was going on. He laughed. ‘Can it be?’
“Gun?” Hugo was baffled.
Lee Gun laughed in disgust as he activated a skill as a test.
When he activated [13th Sense (E)], his eyes turned into the eyes of a snake. He saw things that he normally didn’t. Naturally, he could also see suspicious dark spots, but it was a bit different now.
“G... Gun?” Hugo was still puzzled.
Lee Gun's entire world had turned black and white like an infrared image. All the color disappeared from the world, but a blue human could be seen moving. It was Hugo. In Lee Gun's vision, the people outside and the animals he saw were blue. It seemed the color blue represented living organisms, while inanimate objects were black.
‘Looks like items related to the unknown civilization give off a red color.’
One of the prime examples of this was the item within Hugo’s room. It was an item Lee Gun had created from a monster’s needle.
“…!” Suddenly, Lee Gun saw something unique on top of the desk, next to the red horse. “…?”
It was a red flame. The flame acted as if it didn’t want to get close to Lee Gun, yet it was covetous of the holy item Lee Gun had made. It was exerting a lot of effort to pull the holy item toward it.
Lee Gun approached the flame to see what it was.
“Uh, uh? Stop! Don’t come here!”
“…!” Lee Gun’s lips curled up when he heard the familiar voice. He quickly moved forward and grabbed the flame with one hand. Then, he picked up a stuffed bunny doll lying on top of Hugo’s desk.
Lee Gun ruthlessly shoved the flame into the doll. Something surprising happened the next second.
Puhng!
[The ability of the Man Who Pounds on All Creations has been activated.]
Accompanying a flashing light, the doll suddenly raised its head. It frantically jumped out of Lee Gun’s hand.
This development surprised Hugo. “Wait a— What the hell is that?”
“What do you think it is?” Lee Gun stepped on the flustered doll, which was trying to run away. “It's the bald bastard I killed.”
“…!” Hugo was appalled by the words. “That’s Yang Wei? That?”
“Yes. Don’t you hear it talking?”
The doll, which was being crushed underneath Lee Gun’s foot, was cussing. It was telling Lee Gun to move his foot.
However, Hugo couldn’t hear the voice at all. “Hear what talking...”
“Ah! It seems only I can hear him.”
The flame was nothing more than Yang Wei’s soul. Lee Gun, too, hadn’t been able to hear Yang Wei's voice until not too long ago. It seemed he could hear the soul only after activating <13th Sense>.
‘Since his soul is still here, his body was treated as fresh.’
Lee Gun finally realized why he could extract data from Yang Wei’s corpse. The magical energy was being extracted from the latter's soul. ‘It's said Saints make a soul contract with the Zodiacs.’
Lee Gun just glanced at the soul and felt the Sheep Saint’s magical energy around it.
Hugo became more flustered when Lee Gun identified the soul as Yang Wei's. It was to be expected. ‘There is no way a Saint’s soul would stay behind!’
When a Saint died, the Zodiac took their soul. It was part of the contract. Of course, Hugo had no idea what happened to the soul after that.
“How can his soul still be here?” he asked Lee Gun.
“It might be because the Wealth construct ran away.” Lee Gun tried to explain.
“What?”
“I have no idea why, but the Aries’s construct ran away when I killed this bastard.”
“…!” Hugo’s mouth fell open in disbelief. The idea of a construct running away while leaving behind its Saint was absurd, but...
‘I see.’ If that were the case, Hugo could accept how a soul was left behind. ‘It meant the construct didn’t even have time to collect the soul.’
Hugo finally understood why Lee Gun was able to easily kill Yang Wei. Of course, he didn't think Lee Gun was weak, but...
‘Saints aren’t normal humans.’
A Zodiac’s power differed greatly depending on the number and quality of disciples they possessed. The Aries had many disciples under him. It meant the power of his protection was pretty strong at a fundamental level. That was why a knife couldn’t penetrate any vital points of a powerful Saint. It was a specialized power that had been developed over time.
In fact, Lee Gun and Hugo had fought a life and death battle with the Sheep Saint in the past due to a problem involving Hugo’s wife. In the battle, this power had deflected almost all of Hugo's arrows.
‘I was wondering how he had pierced the Sheep Saint’s heart.’
It was still a pretty big deal. Even if a construct had run away, Yang Wei was the Aries’s human. Although he didn’t have the direct protection of his Zodiac, it wouldn’t have been an easy task to pierce his vital point. This was the reason Hugo hadn’t been able to mess with Yang Wei in the past.
‘Could it be?’
Hugo’s heart raced as he looked at Lee Gun.
In contrast to Hugo, Lee Gun was nonchalant. He didn’t pay attention to his friend and put on a wolfish grin as he looked at the bunny, which was trying to escape. “You should give me the password before I shove you into the body of a fly. I hope you aren’t thinking of running away.”
Yang Wei, who was crushed underneath Lee Gun’s foot again, clenched his eyes shut. Escape was not an option. Even if he got lucky enough to be found by the other twelve Saints, they would steal his disciples from him. He knew their personalities. Moreover, the psychotic Lee Gun was too good at tracking, and the Archer wouldn't miss with his arrows.
The Archer’s holy ground had been broken by other Saints, so Hugo couldn’t use the full extent of his abilities. However, it didn’t matter since Lee Gun was backing him up.
As expected, Lee Gun laughed. “Just shut up and become my slave.” He laughed as if he were a loan shark.
In the end, Yang Wei cried out in despair. “Shit! I’d rather become a rag than be your slave!”
Yang Wei desperately pulled himself out from underneath Lee Gun’s foot. It resulted in the doll’s arm being ripped away, but he didn’t care. “I’ll kill you even if I have to self-destruct!”
Yang Wei moved toward his corpse and took out something. It was a golden key shaped like a sheep.
‘That’s...’ Hugo became surprised; he tried to use his power.
This key was a holy item that summoned the construct of a Zodiac. Usually, Saints could easily summon constructs of their Zodiacs, but this item was created to summon a construct in case of an emergency.
‘There will have to be a different negotiation after the summoning!’
“Get down, Gun!” Hugo quickly called forth his flame.
Yang Wei laughed in derision. “You're too late!”
The construct he had called was powerful enough to belong to the god of war. It was very dangerous. There was a chance that it could eat him instead of negotiating with him. However, Yang Wei didn't care about that now. “With this, I can—”
Suddenly...
Smash!
The golden key broke apart, shocking Yang Wei. “What the hell! Why did it break?”
Lee Gun laughed as Yang Wei was paralyzed from shock.
[Your opponent dared to summon a construct belonging to the Serpent Bearer.]
[Since it is no longer his construct, he cannot summon it.]
“Are you looking for this?” Lee Gun gestured with his hand, and something appeared along with a blinding light. It was a beast.
[Piggy Bank is in a critical condition.]
The pixiu whined as it fell over. However, when it met Lee Gun’s eyes, it jumped up in surprise and tried to run away. In the end, the flustered Yang Wei hurriedly tried to pick up another key. However, a sharp knife appeared in Lee Gun’s hand.
[The basic attribute of the Serpent Bearer has been activated.]
[Serpent Bearer’s attribute
[Serpent Bearer’s attribute
[The Serpent Bearer’s attribute allows any item to inflict a critical blow.]
[Any item will be given a sharpness property.]
The ordinary knife emanated a nightmarish energy wave all of a sudden. In a flash, the knife headed toward the doll’s neck.
Poo-oohk!
“!”
Lee Gun aimed for the black vessel present at Yang Wei’s neck. When his knife sliced the vessel, a black flame erupted out of the doll. The doll fell to the ground lifeless.
Hugo mourned the loss of the doll his daughter had given him, but Lee Gun didn’t care. With a savage laugh, he grabbed the black flame. “I’ll list exactly three conditions right now. I want you to discuss it with this construct.”
“…!”
“First, I want you to withdraw all your troops from Korea.”
“...!”
“Second, I want you to give back all the wealth you stole from me.”
“…!”
“Third, I want you to give me all the fees you charged to see my possessions! You took the liberty of robbing my house and running a museum, you bastard!”
Yang Wei despaired. Despite everything that was going on, the construct didn’t give a reply. ‘I probably wouldn’t have been able to win against Lee Gun even if I had the construct on my side anyway.’
Suddenly...
“Let’s be real. You aren’t going to listen to me. That's why I want you to give me the contract,” Lee Gun said to Yang Wei.
“W-what? C-contract?”
“You know what. You guys have a holy item called the Life Contract. I want you to give me ten for now.”
Yang Wei became appalled as he processed Lee Gun’s request. “Do you know how much one page of that is worth—”
“Ah! This makes me want to stop a cockroach.”
“Ok! I understand!” This was why Yang Wei hated Lee Gun. It was apparent that Lee Gun would work him to the bone while eating away the wealth of the Sheep Saint. ‘Shit! I should've stayed hidden in the Sheep’s territory. Why did I come to Korea?’
Lee Gun was satisfied when he received the contracts. It didn’t take him long to write one contract and sign it. “Sign your name here.”
“Shit!”
Hugo clicked his tongue as he watched Yang Wei sign the contract. Suddenly, Lee Gun discreetly pushed another contract toward him.
[The Sagittarius’s constructs and its Saint’s subordinates will follow Lee Gun-nim.]
“What are you doing? You have to sign it too,” Lee Gun shouted.
“…” There was no way he would sign it! Hugo tore the holy item.