chapter 159

Kelvatron was the vicious boss monster of the rift, and Kang Yoon-Soo had to steal the sword it was guarding while the rift was falling apart.

Yuriel looked back worriedly and shouted, “Creature! We do not have much time!”

The rift had started to fall apart, and most of the corrupted monsters they had passed a few moments before were all buried underneath rubble falling from above.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked at Yuriel and asked, “You still can’t kill any form of life?”

Yuriel’s face paled as she replied, “I could be corrupted if I kill an innocent creature!”

“Then support me at least,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Hmm… I can bestow my blessing on you,” Yuriel replied, then approached Kang Yoon-Soo and kissed his cheek.

Great strength coursed through Kang Yoon-Soo’s body..

[You have received an affectionate kiss from the Guardian Angel, Yuriel.]

[Yuriel’s affection toward you has increased.]

[The blessing’s effects have been amplified.]

[A portion of the angel’s power has been transferred to you.]

[Three stats that are not visible to mortals have been greatly boosted.]

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of the rift crumbling reverberated throughout the entire place—time was running out.

Kang Yoon-Soo charged at Kelvatron.

“Kreeehuhuh!” Kelvatron cried when it sensed Kang Yoon-Soo’s presence. It immediately swung its ax toward him, but Kang Yoon-Soo ducked and easily avoided its attack.

“Holy Sword,” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered, using a powerful skill of the Paladin class. A ball of energy formed in his hand, then shot upward and materialized into a sword that exuded powerful holy energy. The sword clashed against Kelvatron’s ax.

Clang!

Due to the angel’s blessing, Kang Yoon-Soo was not pushed back in a contest of strength against the boss monster. Rather, they both recoiled equally from the clash of weapons.

In that split second, while the boss monster was still confused about what was going on, Kang Yoon-Soo shouted, “Yuriel!”

Kang Yoon-Soo had had no intention to kill Kelvatron from the beginning. Yuriel immediately spread her wings and replied, “I understand!”

Yuriel flew into the distance while Kang Yoon-Soo was fighting against the boss monster. She reached the deeper part of the rift where the sword was being kept, pulling it out and quickly throwing it. She shouted, “Creature! Take this!”

Kang Yoon-Soo caught the sword with one hand. The weapon was quite old and worn, its blade chipped in multiple places.

[Soulless Sword]

Rating: ???

A sword that was being guarded by Kelvatron in the Rerbar Rift. It is made of a rare material that can store a soul. The sword may evolve if processed with a special alchemic method.

+The sword’s power will change depending on the materials used to process it.

The Soulless Sword looked pitiful at a glance, but it would be a great help in Kang Yoon-Soo’s final life. He immediately put it in his backpack.

[You may bring back one item to reality depending on your level.]

[You are Level 257 back in reality.]

[You are eligible to bring back the Soulless Sword.]

[The Soulless Sword you have obtained in the trial will materialize in reality.]

Kelvatron was enraged to see the human getting his hands on its treasure.

“Keereeehuuuuu!” The boss monster let out a hideous roar, gathering power in all of its muscles and charging at Kang Yoon-Soo.

Kang Yoon-Soo jumped to one side and avoided the charge, which left a massive crater where he had just been standing. He retreated from the enraged boss monster, but soon found his back against the wall.

“No!” Yuriel shouted. She tried to fly as quickly as she could toward Kang Yoon-Soo, but there was no way she could make it.

“Keeruuhuuu!” Kelvatron roared, lifting its ax high up with both hands.

Kang Yoon-Soo was in a critical situation. However, at the very moment when the massive ax of the boss monster was about to execute him..

[The disaster of the Ice Sun has started.]

[The disastrous chill of the Ice Sun will freeze all life forms and crush them.]

It was the Ice Sun summoned by one of the magic scrolls. Its light shone down on Kelvatron’s shoulder, instantly freezing it. The boss monster roared in agony as it lost its grip on its ax.

Kang Yoon-Soo did not miss the opportunity to catch the falling ax with both hands. He infused his divine power into it, then swung it as hard as he could.

Kwachik!

“Keeruuuhoooo!” Kelvatron roared as the divine power-imbued ax bit into its side.

The boss monster fell to its knees before Kang Yoon-Soo, and he smashed the ax mercilessly against Kelvatron’s side as if he were a lumberjack hacking away at a tree. Kelvatron’s spine snapped, and its body was cut in half.

[You have killed the corrupted guardian of the fairies, Kelvatron!]

“Insignificant creature! Are you alright? Did you get hurt anywhere?” Yuriel asked as she flew over to Kang Yoon-Soo’s side and started to exhale her breath onto him.

Kang Yoon-Soo threw away the bloodied ax in his hand and replied, “No, I’m alright.” He wrapped his arm around Yuriel’s waist, and the angel flinched in surprise.

Yuriel then whispered in his ears with a trembling voice, “Insignificant creature… The goddess hates it when an angel and a mortal fall in love…”

“I don’t love you,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. He pointed at the crumbling rift and added, “We have to get out of here if we want to survive.”

The rift was already about to collapse entirely, and the place they were standing in would soon be buried under rubble.

“Che… Fine…” Yuriel grumbled as she picked up Kang Yoon-Soo and flew upward.

Debris fell from above as the entire rift crumbled, but the angel easily maneuvered around the falling rubble and they were able to get out unscathed.

“Go as high as you can,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Close your mouth and hold your breath! It will be difficult to breathe!” Yuriel replied, then flew as high as she could.

They could now see the clouds beneath them, and the air was very thin where they were. They could also see the entire rift as it crumbled.

[All of the disasters have finished.]

[The Ultimate Disaster will start soon.]

A blinding, brilliant light suddenly burst outward, engulfing the entire rift.

Kang Yoon-Soo slowly opened his eyes and saw that the demons were being swept away by the bright light.

[You have cleared the final trial!]

[You have obtained the additional reward for killing all of the demons.]

[The additional reward has evolved the King of the Underworld’s Bone into a stronger item.]

Reward: Bright Stone

Additional Reward: King of the Underworld’s Summoning Bone

[You have completed all of the trials!]

[You have been rewarded with a significant amount of experience points!]

[Your level has risen.]

[You will obtain additional experience points on top of the other rewards you obtain from reading.]

The surroundings turned white. Kang Yoon-Soo closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he was back in the room that contained the Horrible History book on a table. He touched the book, but nothing happened. That meant all of the trials were finally over. Next, he put his hand inside his backpack.

‘The King of the Underworld’s Summoning Bone…’ he thought as he grasped the final additional reward he had obtained. It was an item he had acquired for the first time in his entire regression cycle, and he could not help but look forward to discovering the effect of something he had failed to earn hundreds of times. Who knew if this item would be the deciding factor in his final life?

Just as he was about to check the details of the King of the Underworld’s Summoning Bone, however…

“Insignificant creature!”

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around and saw Yuriel glaring at him with her cheeks puffed up. He thought, ‘I forgot about her.’

“Did you forget about your promise? My summoning time is almost over!” Yuriel exclaimed.

Kang Yoon-Soo opened his backpack and took out two bottles of his most expensive alcohol, and Yuriel’s anger immediately subsided as she smiled brightly. She smiled and laughed like a child, exclaiming, “Hihi! I love alcohol!”

Kang Yoon-Soo clinked cups with the angel. The angel barely drank a few cups, but her face quickly became flushed. Why the angel kept insisting on drinking alcohol despite being aware that it was her weakness was a mystery.

“Won’t the goddess get mad if you get drunk?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

“I’ll just drink and get punished! I’ll feel better that way!” the optimistic angel replied.

“There’s something I want to ask you,” Kang Yoon-Soo slowly asked. This was his main reason for getting the angel drunk.

“Hmm? What isssit?” the drunk angel replied, slurring her words.

“What would happen to the continent if the goddess disappeared?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

“Well… Nothing will happen and things will remain as they are,” the angel replied.

“That’s unexpected. I heard that the goddess herself was the continent… Does that mean the continent will be fine even without the goddess?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

Yuriel squinted and licked her lips before asking, “But why are you asking this?”

“I’m just curious,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Hmm… I shee… Hiccup! This is a secret… The goddess told us a few times… The word ‘god’ is a title the humans came up with, but the gods aren’t that great… In reality, they’re only creators, and nothing more…” Yuriel said slowly, her head nodding as she began to doze off.

Kang Yoon-Soo opened his backpack and took out a coat, covering the angel with it. Yuriel smiled brightly and asked, “Are you giving this to me?”

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Wow! Insignificant creature! You are making me want to stay with you. Nobody likes me in the heavenly realm,” Yuriel said with a smile, then hugged Kang Yoon-Soo. He silently hugged her back, and Yuriel nodded a few times before going back to the heavenly realm.

Kang Yoon-Soo’s expression turned cold after the angel disappeared, as he had obtained a precious piece of information that likely no one else had. ‘The continent will be fine even if the goddess disappears…’

***

Shaneth was horrified when she closed the red book she was reading and looked out the window. The sun was shining brightly down on her through the window, and she rubbed her eyes in disbelief as she sighed and thought, ‘This can’t be…’

Had time begun flowing much more quickly while she was reading the book?

The book Shaneth had been reading in secret was the red book ‘The Cherry Scent of our Housemaid’, and she had finished it overnight. She looked around carefully before placing the book back on the bookshelf, but when she turned around, she jumped and screamed in horror when she saw Kang Yoon-Soo standing in front of her. “Kyaah!”

The librarians and other readers glared at them.

Kang Yoon-Soo asked in a low voice, “Why are you screaming?”

Shaneth whispered while blushing, “Please make some noise before you approach me!”

“There’s somewhere you have to visit with me,” Kang Yoon-Soo said. Afterward, the two walked through the library.

“Something’s strange,” Shaneth said, tilting her head in confusion.

“What is?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

“It’s only been a night, but you give off the impression that you’ve been away for quite a while… It’s just my imagination, right?” Shaneth asked.

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Huh?” Shaneth exclaimed softly in surprise. She had an inquisitive expression, but Kang Yoon-Soo did not bother to resolve her curiosity.

They soon reached the place where Henrick and Iris were, and they found Iris crying. Shaneth furrowed her brow and said, “Henrick ahjussi. You’ve crossed the line by making Iris unni cry.”

“What the hell do you even think of me…?” Henrick grumbled in response.

Iris sniffled and cried, saying, “Please help me, Kang Yoon-Soo. I heard a strange sound in the library last night, and I couldn’t stop crying ever since.”

“A strange sound?” Shaneth exclaimed in surprise. She asked, “I actually heard something as well. Did it sound like an eerie and depressing scream?”

“That’s right! It sounded like that,” Iris said.

Henrick scratched his chin and muttered, “Hmm… A scream in the library in the middle of the night… Something sounds fishy here.”

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and said, “There’s a woman we need to meet.”

“Who? Is she related to the sound we heard?” Shaneth asked.

“You’ll see once you meet her,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. He then led the party down the magical stairs and entered a certain room.

“What a spacious and empty room. What did we come here for?” Henrick asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo quietly took out the five stones from his backpack. They were the rewards he had obtained from the Horrible History book’s trials.

Iris looked at the stones and said, “These look like the perfect stones to play jackstones with.”

“That’s not what these are for,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

He then began placing the stones inside several indents found across the room. There were five indents with purple, light yellow, bronze, black, and white markings on them, and the stones perfectly matched the five colors. Then, the walls in the room started to split open.

Shaneth’s eyes widened in shock and she asked, “What is this place…?”

The space that had been revealed looked quite special, appearing much wider and grander than the room they were currently in. Inside, there were various kinds of incense burning and numerous glass vessels in which various liquids were being distilled. Apart from that, there were several large boulders and things that resembled the body parts of various creatures. It looked exactly how one might imagine a laboratory to appear.

At the far end of the laboratory was a beautiful short-haired woman, who exuded a mysterious aura of intellect. She was reading a book, and it seemed she still had not noticed Kang Yoon-Soo and his party.

Kang Yoon-Soo took a step forward and said, “We came to meet you, Great Alchemist Minerva.”

“Huh…?” Shaneth exclaimed in confusion.

“W-W-What did you just say?” Henrick stuttered in surprise.

The two could not hide the shock on their faces.

Minerva was an Ancient Hero, just like the King of All Things, Sirian, and the Ultimate Necromancer, Nakron. Had Kang Yoon-Soo just said that the woman in front of them was one of the Ancient Heroes who had disappeared? One of the group of people who had died while preventing Pandemonium’s invasion?

Minerva looked up from the book she was reading and asked, “Did you bring coffee?”

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Then leave,” Minerva said.

The wall began to close again.