Two days had passed since the Golem ‘Myeolgeop’ successfully cleared a Legendary-grade Ruin.
For those entire two days, the news and online communities had been ablaze without a moment’s rest over the successful clear of a Legendary-grade Ruin.
Was South Korea the only country making such a commotion over it?
Not at all.
The United States, China, Russia, the nations of Europe, and practically every other country that could be considered a major Hunter power were already in an uproar.
There had only been around twenty Legendary-grade Ruins to begin with, and South Korea had snatched one away right from the start.
It was only one Ruin, and around twenty Legendary-grade Ruins appeared every month anyway, so why make such a fuss?
That was not the case either.
The more assets one possessed, the better, and naturally, the same applied to Ruins.
Especially when those Ruins were not ordinary assets, but treasure troves containing rare resources directly tied to national power.
More than two hundred countries around the world were competing for Ruins, while only around twenty of the highest-grade Ruins available this month had appeared.
Would it not be stranger if they were not fighting tooth and nail to claim them?
Since foreign countries did not know the details of what had happened, reports said they were now pushing their Ruin-clearing efforts even harder before any more Legendary-grade Ruins could be taken from them.
“……”
Jeon Jae-woo, who stood at the center of this entire situation, turned his head and stared intently at his Golem.
“You really did this?”
[Yes, Creator.]
The truth was already obvious just from his Status Window, so why was he even asking again?
He simply could not make it feel real.
“But why did you have to enter a Legendary-grade Ruin?”
[You instructed me to choose any Ruin, so I determined that proceeding to the highest-grade Ruin would be the optimal course of action.]
Ah. Right.
He had never specifically told it which Ruin to enter.
Still, of all things, it had gone straight into a Legendary-grade Ruin, the highest grade available.
Thanks to that, he had attracted an enormous amount of attention.
It had already been two hundred years since Mana, monsters, and awakened Hunters first appeared on Earth.
Then, several decades ago, Ruins had begun appearing as well.
Of course, no one yet knew who or what was responsible for either Mana or the Ruins.
Whatever the answer was, they were presumably the work of some higher-dimensional cosmic entity.
In any case, what mattered was that for the past several decades, new Ruins containing immensely valuable resources had appeared in the world every month.
Ruins contained extraordinarily rare treasures and resources so valuable that ordinary natural resources could not even begin to compare.
Ruin grades were divided, from highest to lowest, into Mythic, Ancient, Legendary, Rare, and Common.
Naturally, the higher the grade, the better the rewards.
Anyone on Earth capable of wielding Mana could attempt to explore one, and whoever first achieved one hundred percent exploration became its owner.
Once a Ruin had been fully explored, no one could enter it without the owner’s permission.
In the current world, merely owning a Ruin was therefore synonymous with possessing wealth, influence, and power.
There was no need to explain why everyone wanted to own one.
If one added together every Ruin that had appeared so far, from the most important to the most insignificant, there were well over three million throughout the world.
However, as mentioned before, Ruins did not physically exist on Earth. They existed separately within special spaces accessible only to Awakened individuals.
Every month, several thousand Common-grade Ruins appeared, along with several hundred Rare-grade Ruins.
Around twenty Legendary-grade Ruins also appeared, while an average of roughly one Ancient-grade Ruin emerged each month.
There was also the highest tier, the Mythic grade, but one of those appeared perhaps once a year, so it was essentially an exception.
This month happened to be one in which no Ancient-grade Ruins had appeared at all.
That meant the roughly twenty Legendary-grade Ruins were the highest-grade Ruins available this month.
Yet the moment one of those Legendary-grade Ruins appeared, someone in South Korea had immediately completed its exploration.
Just like that, one of the newly appeared Legendary-grade Ruins had become the personal property of a South Korean citizen.
“……”
As Jeon Jae-woo stood there blankly, still unable to process the reality of the situation, the Golem produced another notification window.
[Creator. If I have committed an error, please inform me. I will correct my future conduct accordingly.]
Jeon Jae-woo shook his head.
“No. You did not do anything wrong. I should have explained things properly from the beginning…”
Far from doing anything wrong, it had handed a treasure trove of resources known as a Ruin to someone who had been an unemployed nobody until only a few days ago.
It had practically catapulted him to success overnight.
And neither the law nor the Ruin System considered what it had done improper.
What worried him was that he had essentially announced to the entire world that he possessed tremendous power immediately after awakening.
He had attracted far too much attention.
“Ugh… Is this really going to be all right?”
Jeon Jae-woo worried that it would not be long before a government agency or some foreign power tracked him down and threatened him into handing over the Ruin.
An ordinary person unexpectedly acquiring an extraordinary resource or tremendous power, only to be subjected to the attention and pressure of everyone around him.
Was that not an exceedingly common cliché by now?
Just then, the Golem—or rather, Myeolgeop—typed another message to him.
[There is no need for the Creator to worry excessively.]
Even if it told him not to worry, how was he supposed to stop?
Did this Golem have the ability to read minds too?
[There truly is no need to worry. I am capable of protecting you from most threats.]
“……”
Jeon Jae-woo’s eyes suddenly widened.
‘Ah. Come to think of it, this thing cleared a Legendary-grade Ruin all by itself.’
Clearing a Ruin was not something that could be accomplished with ordinary strength.
Even Hunters with A- and B-grade Traits, people considered powerful within the industry, usually needed to gather in groups of dozens or even hundreds just to clear a Common- or Rare-grade Ruin.
If Myeolgeop had cleared a Legendary-grade Ruin alone in under an hour, then naturally, it had to possess tremendous combat power.
‘Just how strong is this thing?’
Could it possibly be the strongest among all currently active Hunters in the world?
“Hey. Exactly how strong are you?”
[At present, I have no suitable target for comparison, so it is difficult to provide precise information. However, among the weapons deployed during the war of the past, there was no unit capable of matching me in combat power.]
He still had no idea what war it was talking about.
At least he understood that Myeolgeop was extraordinarily powerful.
Still, hearing about it in words alone did not give him much of a sense of scale.
“Could I watch you fight this time? I mean, by entering a Ruin with you.”
[Of course, Creator. I will act solely according to your commands.]
Well, look at that.
His Myeolgeop really was obedient.
Hmm.
If he wanted to see what it could do, they would first have to enter a Ruin.
There were Dungeons outside his apartment as well, but there were too many people around those, and he did not want to attract any more attention. A Ruin that they could quietly clear on their own was the best choice.
Come to think of it, this would be his first time entering a Ruin.
Jeon Jae-woo used Mana to enter the Ruin System.
-HUMMMMM.
‘Hmm. Is this how I do it?’
So this was how one accessed the Ruin System to enter a Ruin.
He had heard that an awakened person instinctively learned how to do it upon Awakening, and apparently this was what that meant.
A notification window soon appeared before his eyes.
[Ruins Currently Available for Entry]
Mythic – Dawn, Twilight, Pitch Black, Boundary, Path of the Pioneer…
Ancient – Divine Providence, Transcendence…
Whoa.
He had no need for those intimidating Mythic- or Ancient-grade Ruins.
Naturally, Legendary-grade ones were out as well.
This time, he would enter an ordinary Common-grade Ruin.
Jeon Jae-woo took a deep breath and selected the Ruin he wanted to enter.
[Common Ruin – Old Golden Palace]
-FLASH!
A moment later, Jeon Jae-woo and the Golem vanished from his studio apartment at the same time.
***
Jeon Jae-woo teleported into the Ruin alongside his Golem.
He swallowed hard.
In a single instant, an unfamiliar landscape appeared before him.
There stood a palace, its entire structure gleaming with gold.
‘So this is the Ruin I have only ever heard about.’
Majestic might have been an exaggeration, but it was certainly an extraordinarily lavish palace.
That did not mean the entire palace had literally been constructed from solid gold, of course.
Every Ruin took on a different form depending on its type.
This one was merely a Common-grade Ruin, the lowest grade.
There were said to be Ruins where entire palaces and temples were studded with diamonds.
Furthermore, to avoid attracting any additional attention, he had deliberately chosen an older Ruin rather than one of the new Ruins that had appeared this month.
Considering how many Ruins had appeared over the years, naturally, Hunters had not successfully explored every single one of them. Quite a few uncleared Ruins remained.
And yet, despite entering a Ruin of the lowest possible grade, Jeon Jae-woo could not help feeling intimidated.
‘I awakened a Transcendent-grade Trait too… Not that I have any special ability I can directly use myself.’
Myeolgeop had cleared a Ruin that felt this oppressive all by itself?
And one two full grades higher than this?
Whether or not Myeolgeop knew what its master was thinking, it immediately prepared to proceed deeper inside.
[Creator. I will now begin the clear.]
“Uh, I am coming with you!”
He did not want to be left alone in this frightening place.
And so, one man and one Golem ventured deeper into the Ruin.
-SPARKLE SPARKLE
True to its name as a golden Ruin, the gold embedded throughout the palace interior was almost blinding.
The walls, the ceiling, the chandeliers, even the floor.
There was not a single place where gold could not be found.
The brilliant yellow-gold radiance was so intense that it was almost difficult to keep his eyes open.
If the legendary city of El Dorado truly existed, perhaps it would look something like this.
‘How much money would I make if I could just chip off one chunk of gold from here?’
Now he understood perfectly well why people went mad over Ruins.
However, one of the fundamental rules of Ruins was that none of their treasures could be touched until the Hunter had completed the exploration.
Jeon Jae-woo and Myeolgeop were not the only things moving within the palace.
“Grrrrrr…”
Something small was moving through the interior.
Creatures were swinging pickaxes into the palace’s golden walls.
They were Goblins—monsters.
‘Wow. An actual, real-life Goblin.’
Since he had only just become a Hunter, this was his first time seeing a monster in person.
A notification window displaying the exploration requirement soon appeared.
[‘Old Golden Palace’ Exploration Requirement: Eliminate all Goblins stealing the palace’s gold. (0/3000)]
Jeon Jae-woo’s mouth fell open.
“Th-Three thousand?”
Ruins were not designed to be handled by a single Hunter in the first place.
In Dungeons on Earth, a Hunter could simply kill as many monsters as they wanted and then leave.
But completely clearing a Ruin normally required cooperation.
A large raid group would gather and prepare meticulously before attempting the clear.
‘…Now I finally understand why.’
Since this was the lowest-grade Ruin, the Goblins he had to hunt were indeed among the weakest monsters.
But even the weakest monster was still a monster.
And no matter how he looked at it, a condition requiring them to kill all three thousand of them was absurd.
Hunters had to use their Traits to fight monsters, and no matter how powerful a Hunter was, facing numbers like these would eventually drain their Mana, leaving them exhausted and destined to become Goblin food.
On top of that, simply locating every Goblin throughout such an enormous Ruin would be no easy task.
There was no conceivable way to finish something like this after hunting for only a day or two.
Jeon Jae-woo cautiously looked toward his Golem.
Could Myeolgeop really hunt such an enormous number of monsters all by itself?
Myeolgeop, however, appeared entirely unconcerned by the number of Goblins.
-BOOOOOOM!
It drew up its Mana, stepped forward, and displayed a notification window.
[Then I will carry out your command, Creator.]