-HUMMMMM!
This time, Jeon Jae-woo entered the Legendary-grade Ruin together with Myeolgeop.
‘Wow. No matter how many times I experience this, it still feels incredible.’
The instant a Hunter accessed the Ruin System and expressed the intention to enter a Ruin, they were transported there immediately.
If there were a Trait that allowed someone to use this kind of teleportation on Earth, it would undoubtedly be S-grade.
‘Ah, right. I awakened a Transcendent-grade Trait.’
In any case, this was the Legendary-grade Ruin known as the Altar of the Apostle of Death.
Jeon Jae-woo had no idea who or what the Apostle of Death mentioned in the Ruin’s name was.
Judging by the name, however, he had expected the Ruin to have a gloomy, sinister atmosphere.
“……??”
Upon entering, Jeon Jae-woo was surprised for an entirely different reason.
Instead of a dreary sky, sunlight poured down from a clear, bright one.
And in front of him stood nothing but a single empty altar.
Ah, looking again, there was a brazier on either side.
There were stairs as well, with what looked like a platform for offerings at the top…
‘…Is this really all there is?’
Jeon Jae-woo could hardly believe it.
The contrast with Old Golden Palace, the lowest-grade Ruin he had visited, was far too great.
Compared to this measly altar, a Ruin containing an entire palace covered in gold seemed tens of millions of times more valuable.
Surely he was not expected to break chunks of stone off the altar and sell them.
“Myeolgeop. Were there monsters here too?”
[That is correct.]
The area surrounding the altar was nothing but a vast, empty plain.
Whatever else could be said about it, the sight of the wide-open landscape was rather pleasant.
“What kind of monster appeared?”
[A single skeletal knight clad in armor and wielding a longsword was waiting for me.]
Jeon Jae-woo’s mouth fell open at Myeolgeop’s matter-of-fact response.
“A skeletal knight? Do you mean a Skeleton Knight?!”
Skeleton Knights were among the highest-ranking monsters of the Undead type.
They were terrifying Undead monsters said to be equal in strength to an S-grade Hunter.
Now he understood why the Ruin was called the Altar of the Apostle of Death.
Unlike Old Golden Palace, which had contained three thousand Goblins, this Ruin apparently contained only a single monster because that monster was overwhelmingly powerful.
‘Hmm? Wait a minute.’
Now that he thought about it, the difficulty of a Legendary-grade Ruin made even less sense.
A Skeleton Knight was certainly a powerful monster capable of matching one of South Korea’s representative S-grade Hunters.
But if a Legendary-grade Ruin contained only a single Skeleton Knight, he could not help thinking, ‘That is all?’
If the only monster inside a Legendary-grade Ruin was one equivalent to an S-grade Hunter, then theoretically, a single S-grade Hunter should somehow be able to clear it alone.
But Legendary-grade Ruins were never something an S-grade Hunter could clear alone, no matter how exceptional they were.
Even the South Korean Hunter Administration worked together with major Companies when attempting to clear Legendary-grade Ruins.
If there had really been only one Skeleton Knight, then compared to three thousand lower-ranking Goblins, the difference in overall combat power did not seem that enormous.
Just then, Myeolgeop seemed to hesitate before carefully typing another message.
[Um… Creator. I believe there has been one misunderstanding. The opponent I faced was not an ordinary Knight, but a Knight King.]
“? A Knight King?”
Jeon Jae-woo looked even more bewildered.
He had heard of Skeleton Knights, but never of a Skeleton Knight King.
Would it be listed somewhere in the Hunter Administration’s monster records?
In any case, the title Knight King alone suggested that it was stronger than an ordinary Skeleton Knight.
And that meant Myeolgeop had fought a monster far stronger than an S-grade Hunter one-on-one and defeated it.
As far as Jeon Jae-woo was concerned, he was simply grateful that Myeolgeop had killed it before he ever had to encounter it.
Seeing his Golem in an entirely new light, Jeon Jae-woo patted Myeolgeop on the back.
“You really are incredible. Seriously, you are amazing.”
[…Thank you, Creator.]
A Golem should not have been capable of having emotions, but was it merely Jeon Jae-woo’s imagination that Myeolgeop seemed slightly pleased at that moment?
‘All right, I understand the level of the monster now, but what exactly counts as the reward here?’
Aside from the altar itself, the place truly was nothing more than an empty plain.
‘Could the braziers on either side be special or something?’
But they were nothing more than old braziers.
Just as Jeon Jae-woo began wondering whether he would have to dig into the ground to find a Mana vein or something—
Myeolgeop suddenly pointed toward the center of the altar.
[Creator. If you are looking for the reward obtainable from this Ruin, it is over there.]
“??”
Only then did Jeon Jae-woo examine the altar more carefully.
When he narrowed his eyes and focused, it did seem as though something was there.
The altar was so large and broad that even something sitting in the middle of it had looked no bigger than a speck from where he stood.
Once he approached and examined it properly, he saw that it was a suit of armor.
-RUMMMMMBLE…!
It was a pitch-black suit of armor radiating such an immense aura of Mana that it made him instinctively take a step backward.
‘Damn, that startled me.’
Surely this Knight King or whatever it was called was not still alive inside the armor?
But Jeon Jae-woo soon found himself picking up the armor as though entranced and examining it from every angle.
“Could this be…?”
[It is the armor worn by the Knight King. When I eliminated it, both the Knight King and its sword crumbled into dust, but this suit of armor remained.]
Ah.
So this Ruin had given him a single item as its reward.
Naturally, the types of rewards obtained from Ruins varied greatly.
Some Ruins, like Old Golden Palace, contained resources that Hunters could enter and extract.
Others yielded only one or two rare items like this.
Of course, receiving only one or two items did not mean the Ruin had produced a poor reward.
Such items were invariably extraordinary treasures, essentially concentrating the value of the massive quantities of Mana resources found in other Ruins into a single object.
Jeon Jae-woo did not know much about this pitch-black armor, but the sheer amount of powerful Mana emanating from it made it obvious that it was no ordinary item.
Still, he asked Myeolgeop just to be sure.
“What do you think of this? Is it good armor?”
[I am a combat unit, so I am not optimized for providing explanations regarding Magic Tools. However, to give you a general assessment…]
Myeolgeop’s explanation immediately stretched across Jeon Jae-woo’s vision like an entire research paper.
‘Hmm. That is detailed enough.’
In any case, it was clear that this was extraordinarily powerful armor.
As the sole reward from a Legendary-grade Ruin, it was so valuable that even offering every last piece of gold inside the Common-grade Old Golden Palace would not come close to matching its worth.
‘The problem is, I do not think I will ever have a reason to use it.’
Jeon Jae-woo’s Trait was Crafting-Type to begin with, so it would make no sense for him to put on armor and personally fight monsters.
But putting armor on Myeolgeop, which was itself a Golem, seemed strange as well.
Well, exceptional equipment could always be sold for an enormous sum to someone who needed it later.
For now, he would simply keep it somewhere safe.
“By the way, why did you not bring this armor back after clearing the Legendary-grade Ruin?”
[Because the only instruction the Creator gave me was to eliminate the monster. Would you prefer that I retrieve all resources and rewards in the future as well?]
“N-No. You did well. Just keep doing things the way you have been.”
Jeon Jae-woo hurriedly shook his head and stopped Myeolgeop from changing its behavior.
‘Bringing it back would only make it easier to steal. It is probably safer to leave it inside the Ruin.’
The thought of transporting the entire Old Golden Palace into reality simply because it was a Ruin reward sounded horrifying.
He left the Skeleton Knight King’s armor inside the Legendary-grade Ruin as well and returned.
After all, the Altar of the Apostle of Death was now a Ruin that only Jeon Jae-woo himself could enter.
“Haaa.”
After returning to Earth, Jeon Jae-woo let out a long sigh.
Far too many unbelievable things had happened one after another in only two days, leaving his head spinning.
‘First, calm down and organize the situation.’
To begin with, he had suddenly awakened a Transcendent-grade Trait and acquired an ability called Heaven’s Box.
Then, as though some god had descended into that Trait, he had dumped a clump of soil from a flowerpot in his apartment into the box just to test its ability, only for an absurdly powerful Golem to emerge.
That Golem had then cleared a Legendary-grade Ruin all by itself and drawn the attention of the entire world.
“Haaa…”
Jeon Jae-woo let out another long sigh.
There was one thing anyone who wanted to work as a Hunter in South Korea had to do.
In fact, the same was true anywhere in the world.
They had to complete Hunter Registration with the Hunter organization of the relevant country.
If someone refused to register as a Hunter and was later caught, they immediately became a criminal. No excuses, no exceptions.
And right now, the South Korean Hunter Administration was undoubtedly searching desperately for the person who had cleared a Legendary-grade Ruin only one hour after the new Ruins had been announced.
Of course, Hunters were not legally obligated to report which Ruins they had cleared to their governments.
The problem was that the moment a Ruin was cleared, the Ruin System displayed the clearer’s name and nationality for everyone to see.
‘Why did whoever created the Ruin System have to include such a ridiculous feature…?’
That was why the media had learned about the clear and reported it as breaking news the instant Myeolgeop finished the Ruin.
For now, Jeon Jae-woo remained unregistered, so the Hunter Administration could do nothing but search for him.
But the moment he entered the Hunter Administration and underwent an Awakening Test, the odds of being discovered were well above 99.99 percent.
Even if he was a newly awakened rookie, the appearance of someone possessing a Transcendent-grade Trait would make them certain it was him.
Then Jeon Jae-woo’s life would become unbearably chaotic again.
Meanwhile, Myeolgeop seemed troubled by the difficulties its own carelessness(?) had caused its master.
[Please do not worry too much. As long as I am present, I will ensure that no troublesome situation ever reaches the Creator.]
“I am still worried. If people find out that I awakened a Transcendent-grade Trait, everyone is going to cling to me hoping to get even the smallest share of the benefits.”
[If the worst-case scenario occurs and the nation becomes hostile toward the Creator, I will protect you even if it requires destroying the country in which the Creator resides—]
“COUGH! COUGH! COUGH!!”
Jeon Jae-woo choked and erupted into a violent coughing fit, causing Myeolgeop to stop mid-sentence.
[C-Creator. Are you all right?]
“Y-Yeah. I am fine. But there is absolutely no need to go that far. Please, I am begging you, do not do that.”
The moment Myeolgeop casually declared that it would destroy an entire country, Jeon Jae-woo suddenly gained a much more tangible sense of just how powerful it was.
Then again, this was something that had single-handedly cleared a Legendary-grade Ruin in barely an hour when even several S-grade Hunters would normally have to be mobilized for one.
And it possessed two Transcendent-grade Traits on top of that.
“Um. I am only asking just in case, but when you cleared the Legendary-grade Ruin, was that Skeleton Knight King strong?”
[The Knight King was an extremely powerful monster, but under equal conditions in a one-on-one battle, the probability of it defeating me was exceedingly low.]
Hmm.
As expected.
Jeon Jae-woo remained still for a moment before eventually rising to his feet and heading outside.
[Creator. Are you leaving?]
“Yeah. It is going to be a nuisance either way, so I might as well get it over with as quickly as possible.”
Thanks to Myeolgeop, Jeon Jae-woo was able to head toward the Hunter Administration with a somewhat(?) lighter step.