“Understand the system, and use it.”

That was what Kabel had once told Hyunsoo.

And what Hyunsoo said when he heard that at the time was this.

“...What are you talking about?”

“?”

“...?”

“??”

“...??”

For Hyunsoo, who had once set the astonishing record of scoring 3 points on a math test long ago, those were words far too difficult for him!

From the standpoint of ordinary users’ common sense, there was no way to understand it.

A supercomputer was superior and transcendent.

There was even a saying that even if all the people in the world put their heads together, they still would not compare to a single supercomputer, Ares.

Kabel had explained it simply.

“In the end, the people who created the ‘restrictions’ of that thing called the system are the employees at Pureum. Think of it this way. If you were a Pureum employee, how would you place restrictions on something when someone tried to do it?”

Hyunsoo had not understood it very well at the time, but as time passed, he came to understand it more deeply.

You just have to change your point of view.

If he did something too excessive, or too extraordinary—

then all he had to do was imagine what kind of restriction he would create if he were a Pureum employee.

Of course, most things also strayed outside the bounds of simple interests.

And this world called Ares operated far more through the degree of freedom granted to NPCs than through anything filled in directly by Pureum employees, so there would be far more cases where that kind of thinking missed the mark.

But this time was different.

I got it right for the first time.

Keep a dog by the village school for three years and it recites poetry; keep Kabel by your side, and even Hyunsoo learns one thing or two!

Because of that, Hyunsoo accepted Pope Karsel’s buffs in controlled amounts.

If there were no restrictions, I could’ve just started taking the full-buff from the third day onward.

To begin with, neither he nor Karsel could keep up a forced march for more than four days in a full-buff state anyway.

And once Hyunsoo started running dungeons, he began experimenting.

What he tested was simple: when he received Holy Body, would his defense actually be able to endure it?

Berserker Mode.

In other words, the Ares Church’s Holy Body was clearly dangerous.

But the advantage of using Holy Body was that it made it possible to hunt monsters of an even higher level.

Because of that, when he first entered the dungeon, Hyunsoo had not received a single buff from Karsel.

At the time, Karsel had spoken in a worried voice.

“Brother, this is not at a level you can endure. Even now, please receive the buff—”

But Hyunsoo had firmly shaken his head.

This dungeon was a place entered by high rankers averaging around Lv.470.

The monsters here were mostly fire-attribute monsters.

Among them, the Lava Golem, wrapped in lava from head to toe, possessed absurdly high defense and attack power.

However, because it was a golem, its attack speed was about 40% slower than ordinary mobs, and its movement speed was about 50% slower.

Instead, every time it attacked, there was a chance it would trigger splash damage and cause a lava explosion attack.

Still, its attack speed and movement speed are both extremely slow, so it’s perfect as a test subject.

[Lava Golem Lv.475]

In front of the Lava Golem, which even decent rankers needed ten full minutes of pounding on to kill, Hyunsoo stepped forward for the sake of his experiment.

And the moment the creature swung its fist wide—

RUMBLE—!

Karsel was startled.

The Lava Golem’s lava explosion had triggered the instant it threw its first punch.

Scorching fire surged from its fist, and lava bubbled up from the ground.

And compared to monsters of the same level, the Lava Golem’s attack power was 60% higher. It stood four meters tall.

Compared to that, Hyunsoo, at barely over 180 centimeters, looked much smaller.

BOOOOOM—!

The Lava Golem’s burning fist slammed directly into Hyunsoo’s body.

WHOOOOSH—!

At the same time, lava erupting from the ground swallowed Hyunsoo whole.

“B-Brother!!!?”

Karsel could not help but panic.

Karsel himself was also a powerful man, so seeing the attack from a creature with such exceptionally high attack power, he had assumed Hyunsoo must have suffered a massive critical blow, that his armor and body would be melting away in places.

But—

“...?”

When the bubbling lava and volcanic ash cleared, what was revealed was utterly shocking.

It was Hyunsoo, wearing black full plate armor.

Of course, he had not gone out of his way to tell Karsel what this “armor” really was.

But this armor—

it had once been worn by the existence known as the Overlord, who had dominated an era.

“Huh?”

Even the Lava Golem was equally taken aback.

Hyunsoo’s armor had not even dented. It was actually gleaming.

That, too, was something astonishing even to Hyunsoo, and precisely why he had needed something to test against.

After coming down from the Tower of Honor, Hyunsoo had immediately found himself holding White Tiger Sword, a Mythology-grade sword.

White Tiger Sword was powerful.

It was so exceptional that Hyunsoo himself could not tell how much he had truly grown in the Tower of Honor, nor how extraordinary the effects of this armor, this helmet, and the other rewards he had obtained actually were.

And as for his own growth—

This is insane...

Even he was shocked.

Because he had climbed the tower while breaking record after record, he had steadily received rewards in the form of all stats.

He had also consistently purchased All Stats Increase using Tower of Honor points.

As a result, the growth he had built up over all that time was so great that even he could hardly believe it.

And then Karsel was about to witness an even more shocking sight.

[Overlord]

[Returns damage 3 times over and ignores all defense.]

Just now, the Lava Explosion had triggered, dealing splash damage while also inflicting double the damage of its normal attack.

And at that moment, that power activated threefold—and moreover, it activated while ignoring the golem’s high defense, the very thing considered its greatest advantage.

KABOOOOOM—!

Having received that damage in full, the Lava Golem’s body was gouged and torn apart in places, leaving it a wreck.

In truth, Karsel had been thinking something like this all along.

Brother is, in the end, a blacksmith.

A blacksmith was a class that made weapons and armor, not one that fought.

He had also seen Bahala challenge him to a duel, and he had found it ridiculous.

A duel between someone walking the path of the Sword God and a blacksmith?

The idea itself made no sense.

To begin with, every human being excelled in different fields.

So if he were being honest, it was true that Karsel had been looking down on Hyunsoo in terms of martial power.

But—

monsters felt fear too.

And golems, in particular, wore high defense as their weapon and trusted in it completely.

Yet now, this Lava Golem had just encountered a human who made ??? appear over its attack.

And after the explosion that had just gone off, leaving the Lava Golem half-ruined, the emotion it felt was fear, dread, and the certainty that it could never reach him.

Then, with another power activating at just the right time—

[Overwhelm]

Due to Hyunsoo’s high Charisma stat and the like, the Lava Golem came to understand that it could not defeat him and could not even touch him.

And so, that creature possessed of monster instinct completely lost its will to fight.

So what kind of behavior did the Lava Golem show?

THOOOOOM—!

It had dropped to both knees and was showing that it would serve him—if only he would spare its life.

And Hyunsoo had only picked it as a test subject in the first place, and besides, he felt uneasy about killing a Lava Golem that was actually begging to be spared.

“This is the first time I’ve seen a normal mob ask to be spared. Tch.”

With that, Hyunsoo lowered his sword.

And what happened next was more than enough to shock Pope Karsel even further.

One of Hyunsoo’s titles had begun to shine.

[A Lord’s Grace shines!]

THOOOOM—!

The Lava Golem smashed its head to the ground before Hyunsoo and volunteered to become his retainer.

And through that, Hyunsoo learned a new fact: A Lord’s Grace could activate even on ordinary monsters.

“Well, fine then. Man, it would’ve been even better if you were a boss mob.”

But to the one watching, it was more than enough to leave him stunned.

“...”

Pope Karsel.

He was watching a massive, violent golem just under four meters tall submit to the transcendent strength of a single human being.

He knew nothing of the power called the effect of A Lord’s Grace.

And because Hyunsoo spoke so casually, the shock struck even harder.

From the moment they first entered the dungeon, Karsel had disregarded Hyunsoo’s martial side.

That way of thinking had been completely overturned in this very first dungeon.

“You’re Golemmy from today on. For now, go stay in the pet space.”

Then, with Hyunsoo casually saying that and putting away a Lava Golem as if it were nothing, the two of them cleared the first dungeon.

That alone had been done at an extremely fast speed, and only now did Karsel understand.

Why Brother Bahala had challenged him to a duel.

Because only Bahala had seen through his essence.

But now—

this was the moment when Karsel became the second to see that essence.

Somehow, I need to «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» build an even more favorable relationship with him!

In other words, the moment had arrived when the man called Karsel, none other than the Pope himself, had decided he needed to keep Hyunsoo closer.

And what happened because of that was astonishing.

In truth, while continuing that forced march, Hyunsoo had worried every time he went on and on about the love of Ares.

He had worried that perhaps his intimacy with Karsel might drop sharply.

But in that first dungeon, Karsel had been so deeply impressed by Hyunsoo, and was already so favorably inclined toward him, that it did not fall.

And Karsel had attained an insight.

Why was that man strong, and why was he also so good at making artifacts?

Because he had seen the reason with his own eyes.

It was because he moved forward like this without tiring that he had been able to stand where he did.

Astonishingly, as time passed, Karsel grew more and more exhausted, yet his Affinity kept rising!

At that moment, Hyunsoo said,

“Please cast the Holy Body we talked about at the start.”

He had made a certain plan from the very beginning.

First, he had tested whether his defense would be enough to endure even when Holy Body was placed on him.

And second, both of them had arrived at the conclusion that not only could he endure it, he could endure it with room to spare.

At that moment, Karsel saw a possibility.

It was the founding of the nation of Hyun, something he had once thought was no more than a fantasy.

I want that nation to truly be founded, and I want us to maintain a solid alliance!

It was impossible to imagine the power of that nation, where the sword and blacksmithing would coexist.

If the nation of Hyun had truly existed in this recent war between the Calamity Church and the Ares Church, there would not have been so much loss of life!

And so—

“If the nation of Hyun is founded later, I would like us to maintain friendly relations.”

Pope Karsel spoke before the future king.

And Hyunsoo found the sudden remark puzzling.

Out of nowhere?

Because he did not know that this was the result of his own two-day forced march and the proof he had shown.

And then—

[Pope Karsel shows favor.]

[16th Pope Argan forged a secret art capable of burning away life force to split even the heavens in order to hunt the great archdemon!!]

[As later generations were reached, its shortcomings were supplemented and passed down, and it was perfected by Karsel.]

Ding!

[A penalty from the secret art occurs.]

[After using that secret art, Pope Karsel cannot use divine power for one day!]

At first, Hyunsoo had been full of expectation.

But because of that penalty, the unfortunate incident occurred in which Pope Karsel ended up bedridden for a whole day.

N-No...!

Hyunsoo had thought that rather than throwing away one day, it would be better to hunt for two.

W-Why is this old man suddenly trolling on his own!?

Because of this damned secret art, Hyunsoo felt his plan collapsing.

At that moment—

[The strongest Holy Body reveals itself!]

[White Flame]

[All stats increase by 45%.]

[Sword attack power increases by 500.]

[Physical attack power increases by 45%.]

[Magic attack power increases by 52%.]

[Physical defense decreases by 20%.]

[Magic defense decreases by 20%.]

[Skill cooldown is reduced by 40%.]

[Status ailment resistance rises greatly.]

[Status ailment reflection is temporarily generated!]

[White Flame is originally a power that lasts for a very short time.]

[However, Pope Karsel uses the once-a-month One-Day White Flame for you!]

[Congratulations!]

[For a brief moment, you have come to wield the strongest power among users!]

At that moment, Hyunsoo took back what he had said about trolling.

He could describe his current power in exactly one line.

“Beating Bahala is totally doable....”