Divine Beast (1)

First, he examined the ring.

[Ring of the Four Apostles (1/4)]

[Grade: Unique/Fragment]

[Requirements: Level 101 or higher]

[A ring worn by the Fourth Apostle, Belitas. It seems to be incomplete in some way...]

[Effect 1. Increases Magic Power by 50]

[Effect 2. Increases mana recovery rate by 20%]

“Fragment?”

Kim Minwoo’s eyes lit up.

A fragment item. Its true capabilities would emerge once all the fragments were gathered. He needed three more in total.

'The other Apostles must have them.'

Collecting them all would greatly improve the item’s performance, bringing it up to at least Plus grade. With enough luck, its grade might even rise by a full tier.

'A Unique accessory is already worth a fortune...'

But a Unique+ or Legend accessory? You couldn’t buy one because there simply weren’t any available. Any awakener would equip it first and ask questions later.

“Nice.”

He would run into the other Apostles someday. He could collect their rings then.

He removed one of the spatial rings on his hand and put on the Apostle’s ring.

[You equip the Ring of the Four Apostles!]

[Magic Power increases by 50!]

[Mana recovery rate...]

'Great bonuses, too.'

The extra 50 Magic Power went without saying, but increased mana recovery was an exceptionally precious bonus as well.

'You hardly ever see it outside a few buff skills.'

Classes like priests and shamans had skills that boosted recovery rates. On equipment, however, it was one of the rarest bonuses.

'Extremely valuable.'

Potions were expensive, and even with an endless supply, overload and addiction kept you from drinking them indefinitely. That was why he, too, relied on natural recovery in most situations.

One percent per minute.

Without any buffs, health and mana recovered at precisely that rate. A bonus that increased it was obviously excellent.

And there was even room for improvement. This was still only one fragment, after all.

He picked up the skill book.

[You acquire a bound skill book.]

[You acquire the necromancer skill book, Equipment Binding (B)!]

'Huh?'

Equipment Binding?

Could it be the skill he knew?

His eyes shining, Minwoo checked its description.

[Equipment Binding (B)]

[Level Requirement: 115 or higher]

[Allows you to bind equipment to your summons. Bound equipment will not drop even if the summon dies. Also increases the performance of bound equipment by 20%.]

'It is.'

A skill that bound equipment to summons. It was one of the essential skills every summoning class dreamed of obtaining.

The reason was simple: summoning creatures and equipping them was an enormous hassle.

Take his skeletons, for example. He had to summon them, scatter equipment from his spatial ring, and have them pick it up and put it on.

'A damn complicated process.'

Enemies didn’t give you time to prepare. Sometimes he had to summon skeletons at their feet to hamper their movements, or immediately resummon ones that had been unsummoned.

Naturally, there was no time to equip them in those situations. They had to fight with nothing but a single basic bone weapon.

But with Equipment Binding?

Their equipment would stay bound to them, letting him deploy fully equipped summons wherever and whenever he needed them. No skill could match it for expanding his strategic options.

On top of that, their gear wouldn’t drop when they were unsummoned, and its performance would improve.

'This is seriously good.'

Until now, he had kept the skeletons’ equipment at Magic grade. Cost was a factor, but the main reason was to guard against disaster.

He still vividly remembered returning from the Death Lord’s provision without recovering hundreds of armor sets.

What if that happened after he outfitted them in Rare gear?

He couldn’t afford that. Never mind the money; replacing it all would take an enormous amount of time.

'Now I don’t have to worry about that.'

He could even mass-produce Plus items with his crafting skills now. This skill alone looked set to boost his fighting strength by at least fifty percent.

What a jackpot.

Now, all that remained was...

He looked at Belitas’s corpse.

'Take it or leave it?'

Creating undead from corpses was fairly complicated. For starters, it required the relevant skill, along with plenty of materials.

And most importantly...

'The corpse has to be high quality.'

Lee Seoyun had possessed great potential. That was why he had kept her corpse. Even if he only acquired an undead creation skill much later, someone of her caliber would be worth the effort of raising.

Belitas, on the other hand?

'Hard to say.'

The guy had been strong because he was a boss monster, not because of any great personal talent or potential.

“Hmm...”

After a brief deliberation, he put the corpse in his spatial ring for now. At least the nerve it had taken to challenge him to a duel of commanders at the very end deserved some credit.

'Well, maybe I’ll raise him someday.'

Or he could just keep it and use its bones for replacements. With the food gone, he had space to spare, so there was no harm in taking it along.

“Chwik! Chief Senior! We cleared them all out!”

Urkan shouted triumphantly, holding a bloodstained axe.

“Good. Don’t go inside the inner keep. Wait there.”

“Chwik! Understood! Anyone who goes inside gets their skull split with this axe!”

Minwoo stepped through the inner keep’s wide-open gates. Savage cold struck him at once.

Beside him, Elise shivered slightly and said, “... The fragment is probably beneath the inner keep. It’ll get colder the farther you go.”

“Please wait here. I’ll go destroy it.”

“Will you be all right?”

“I brought something for just such an occasion.”

She nodded.

“Cedric!”

He called Cedric over from mopping up the inner keep’s defenders, then headed farther inside with him.

[Ferocious cold assails you!]

[Your body temperature is dropping rapidly!]

[You consume a Heat Generation Potion (Highest Grade)!]

[You consume a Cold Resistance Potion (Highest Grade)!]

.

.

Money was god, and potions were invincible.

After downing the highest-grade potions one after another, he felt the cold ease considerably. He headed underground without hesitation.

When they reached the room on the lowest underground level, they found a door frozen solid.

“Break it.”

[Cedric uses Dragon Strike (S)!]

BOOM!

The door shattered, revealing what lay beyond.

A small blue fragment floated in the center of an enormous cavern. An incredible chill swirled above it.

As he looked at the fragment, its information appeared.

[Fragment of Winter]

[Grade: Special]

[A fragment split off from a portion of the Essence of Winter. It contains enough cold to freeze an entire region. It would seem best to leave it alone.]

[Effect 1. Overcoming its cold after consuming it allows you to wield the ice attribute. However, failure to overcome it will result in freezing to death.]

[Effect 2. Overcoming its cold after consuming it grants ice attribute resistance. However, failure to overcome it will result in freezing to death.]

“Hmm...”

“What is it, Master?”

“I don’t think we should get close.”

“It looks that way to me as well.”

“But we can’t just leave it alone...”

Destroying the fragment would stop the cold. Of course, eating it would probably accomplish the same thing.

'No way am I eating that.'

There were limits to bravado. Getting close looked difficult enough, and he was supposed to eat it?

This wasn’t a question of how strong his soul was. You only attempted a challenge when you could see a way to beat it. That wasn’t something a few cold resistance potions would let him overcome.

“Go, Cedric-mon. Smack it with Dragon Strike.”

“...”

After a brief pause, Cedric charged the fragment. His behavior truly befitted a loyalty score of 100.

A moment later...

[Cedric uses Dragon Strike...]

[Freezing solid!]

CRACK!

When Cedric came within ten paces of the fragment, ice encased his entire body, freezing him solid.

Then...

CRASH!

The ice shattered, and Cedric was unsummoned. Death Lord revived him once, but he had already stepped into hell. There was no saving him.

After he shattered twice, Minwoo summoned him again.

“Breath.”

Cedric opened his mouth wide and unleashed a tremendous torrent of flame at the fragment.

The breath attack reached the same ten-pace boundary.

HISSS!

The flames dispersed, vanishing completely.

“... That’s insane.”

Minwoo’s expression hardened. The attack that had wrecked a B-rank boss had vanished before it could even get close?

'This is harder than killing the Apostle!'

Ranged attacks?

That last attack had made it clear. Spells and arrows would all freeze before they even reached it.

'Maybe a spell like Meteor would be a different story...'

Meteor was an S-rank spell. Sadly, Minwoo wasn’t a mage.

“There has to be a way to clear this...”

But he still had no idea what it was.

Just then...

“Coo.”

“...?”

“... That wasn’t me.”

“No, I’m asking if you heard that.”

“I did. It sounds like a bird’s call...”

“Cooo.”

“What the hell is that?”

He could clearly hear something calling, but he couldn’t sense any presence at all.

'Is it a mechanic in this place?'

Then it happened.

[The divine beast watching you reveals itself!]

FLAP!

With the flutter of wings, a light weight settled on his shoulder.

It was a small bird, white from head to tail. Strangely, it had a horn on its forehead.

Minwoo stared at the bird.

A divine beast. He had some idea where this had come from.

'The title effect?'

The One Who Stopped Eternity. The title he had earned after completing the Hreulunif battlefield.

One of its effects had definitely been...

[Effect 2. You smell delicious. A divine beast is watching you.]

'So this was that divine beast?'

Then Cedric spoke.

“I think I know what it is. A Seven-Colored Bird.”

“A Seven-Colored Bird?”

“Yes. Its feathers were used to create my body.”

Come to think of it, he had mentioned something like that in passing. Something about Gold Dragon Lord bones, Abyss Lord blood vessels, and Seven-Colored Bird feathers...

“This is one of those?”

“Yes. A Seven-Colored Bird has a white body, a horn on its forehead, and a slightly blue nape. This one has all those features. But do Seven-Colored Birds exist in this world too?”

Cedric tilted his head.

“It probably came along with me. I saw a message saying it was watching me a while back.”

“When was that?”

“When we left the Hreulunif battlefield.”

“... Hmm. I think I understand. Seven-Colored Birds ordinarily absorb seven attributes. Death is one of them. It was probably drawn to the Lord’s energy.”

Was that why it had said he smelled delicious?

“And when an ice-attribute fragment showed up as well, it couldn’t resist coming out?”

“Perhaps? In terms from your world, Master, it would be like having pizza and fried chicken set before you at the same time.”

Ah, nobody could resist that.

He understood at once. Looking at the Seven-Colored Bird on his shoulder, he pointed at the fragment. Its gaze followed his finger.

“Want to eat that?”

“Coo.”

It nodded.

“You understand me?”

“If it was watching you as you said, Master, it probably followed you around the whole time. It seems to have learned some human speech along the way.”

Minwoo nodded. A divine beast would be intelligent. There was nothing strange about it picking up some of the language.

'As for following me into the hidden gate...'

The gate had a one-person limit. In other words, didn’t that simply mean no more than one human could enter?

A bird wasn’t human.

Then a thought crossed his mind.

“Wait. Does that mean you want to eat me too?”

“Coo.”

“Hey! You’re not supposed to nod to that!”

“Coo?”

The Seven-Colored Bird cocked its head.

Minwoo looked at Cedric.

“Mr. Seven-Colored Bird Expert. Mind telling me what I’m supposed to do here?”

“Judging by its size, it seems to be a newly hatched chick. There may be room to teach it.”

“Not to eat me?”

Cedric nodded.

“I’ve never seen anyone raise a Seven-Colored Bird... but that doesn’t mean it can’t be taken in. Usually, people couldn’t raise them, rather than choosing not to.”

That made sense.

“But can it actually eat that?”

“... Probably? Seven-Colored Birds aren’t stupid creatures. It wouldn’t covet something it couldn’t handle.”

Right. Best to trust the expert.

He looked at the Seven-Colored Bird.

An incredible stealth ability.

Smart enough to learn a language.

Capable of resolving his current predicament.

And with seven attributes at its disposal, it looked likely to remain useful well into the future.

'Why wouldn’t I take it in?'

Wasn’t this a classic late-bloomer pet?

Conclusion: winning it over would be a jackpot.

Stroking the Seven-Colored Bird’s head, he said, “Say Daddy. Daddy.”

“... Coo-coo?”

“Aww! Good job! That’s my baby!”

He gently stroked its head. The Seven-Colored Bird cooed, seemingly pleased.

“I’ll give you lots of tasty things besides that. Want to come along with Daddy?”

“Coo?”

“That’s right. I’m Daddy. Stick with Daddy and you’ll get lots of delicious food, and you won’t have to hide anymore.”

At that moment...

“Cooo.”

The Seven-Colored Bird rubbed its head against his finger.

[The divine beast wishes to join you!]

[Will you accept?]

'Got it!'

Minwoo grinned.

A divine beast had fallen right into his hands.