Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 443

Rumble!

As the skill activated, dark clouds formed in the sky and blocked out the sun.

At the same time, rain began to pour down on the dry desert.

Shaaah!

Soaking in the downpour, Su-ho slicked his wet hair back and laughed.

“When you’re dealing with sand, you pour water on it. A very famous, time-honored tradition.”

That was how it had been in his previous life, too.

Suzuki, the mage, had drenched the gatekeeper’s body with water magic to clump the sand, Su-ho had sliced up its body, and through the gap that opened then, Hex had fired an arrow to blow up the core.

Because when not only the body but the entire desert was soaked with water, even if the Blessing of the Desert activated, the damned sand wouldn’t clump together.

But this time, without Suzuki or Hex, Su-ho had done it alone.

All thanks to the Art of Wind and Rain.

Su-ho poured in his purple-colored mana without holding back and brought down an unprecedented deluge on the dry desert.

ShaaAAAAAA!!

As storm-like sheets of rain poured down, the Sand Golem’s color began to change, like mud.

And the instant its body, drenched and clumped, came together, Su-ho didn’t miss the timing and swung his sword.

[ Cloud Severance is activated. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ The power of Cloud Severance grows stronger. ]

Slice!

The sword, swung at high speed, spewed out a crescent.

In the wake of the crescent sweeping through, a massive sword mark was engraved.

[ The Gatekeeper of the Desert receives the Blessing of the Desert. ]

To restore its destroyed core, the Gatekeeper of the Desert, this time as always, used the Blessing of the Desert. But—

“......!”

Sand that had clumped as much as it could no longer answered the call of the blessing.

The sand, tangled like mud, soon crumbled away in loose chunks, and Su-ho swung his sword once more.

[ Cloud Severance is activated. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ The power of Cloud Severance grows stronger. ]

Slice!

This time, he sent the sword scattering in a crossing line to the opposite side.

Then the thing’s body split in an X, and its core also shattered in an X, unable to recover any longer and breaking apart into pieces.

KABANG!

[ You have slain the Gatekeeper of the Desert. ]

At last, Su-ho got to see the notification he’d been wanting to see.

Thud!

The gatekeeper’s corpse that had lost its core... no, the clods of earth, fell limply down and collapsed.

Seeing that, Su-ho stepped onto the now-squelchy ground and laughed.

“So the difficulty really is reduced.”

Judging by how the core was destroyed in just a couple of hits.

Su-ho snapped his fingers, and at the same ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ time as the downpour like a waterfall cut off, the dark clouds withdrew.

Scorching sunlight poured down onto the desert again.

However, the sunlight pouring down now shone like warm rays celebrating Su-ho’s victory.

“All right, then now... Cheolma!”

“Neighhh!”

Su-ho summoned Cheolma and soared up into the sky.

That was when it happened.

[ As the Gatekeeper of the Desert falls, the hidden Desert Gate opens. ]

Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!!

With the system notification, the entire desert began to shake like crazy.

Then, starting from the place where the Gatekeeper of the Desert was, a huge sand vortex began to rage, and the area where the gatekeeper had fallen caved in deeply, starting to suck in everything around it.

From high in the sky, Su-ho silently watched that scene.

‘It finally opened.’

The Desert of the Apocalypse was nothing more than the prologue.

In other words, only after you went through being buried alive, killed off infinite Sand Golems, and broke through the deathless Gatekeeper of the Desert would the gate for the real game finally open.

“Nothing’s changed.”

That thing, swirling as if it meant to swallow up the world and devour the sand.

To start the main game, you absolutely had to go inside that.

And because Su-ho knew that, he had evacuated into the sky in advance.

If he had to go in anyway, it was better to dive in cleanly like a dive than to suddenly get caught in the vortex, flail around with a mouth full of sand.

Of course, it was also to see if there might be some other change due to the lowered difficulty.

But despite having received a difficulty adjustment notice, the Gate’s structure itself seemed to be unchanged.

“Guess I’ll just go in.”

Su-ho stroked Cheolma once and then hurled his body into the core of the vortex.

Plop!

Su-ho’s body began to be sucked into the sand vortex.

*

At the same time as a pain like he was about to be crushed to death swept over him, his vision went dark, and then he dropped somewhere with a thud, like he’d been spat out.

It was pitch-black around him.

However, even before the Vampir effect could activate, the surroundings lit up as if torches were being lit on all sides.

The place where he opened his eyes was a small chamber with a structure about ten-odd meters in diameter.

The height up to the ceiling was about ten meters as well.

If there was something unusual, it was that the structure up to the ceiling wasn’t rectangular but an equilateral triangle, and all four walls were leaning, slanted so they all converged toward one vertex.

Looking around inside the chamber, Su-ho let out a short laugh.

‘Been a while. The Hourglass Room.’

The slanted walls leaned so they met at one point.

Exactly.

This place was shaped like the lower half of an hourglass in the form of a pentahedron.

Of course, it wasn’t called the Hourglass Room just because it simply looked like an hourglass.

That was when it happened.

[ Welcome to Girard’s testing grounds. ]

[ We will now begin Girard’s trial. ]

[ If you destroy the generated Girard’s Finger, the accumulated sand will disappear. ]

[ We will begin the trial. ]

A system notification.

At the same time, with a thunk! sound, sand began to pour down like a waterfall from a small hole in the ceiling.

At the same time, right below where the sand was pouring down, a stone pillar about as tall as a person’s height rose up with a rumble!

It was the Girard’s Finger the system had mentioned.

“Long time no see, Girard’s Finger too.”

The third course had begun.

It was to cut off Girard’s Finger and resist being crushed to death by the falling sand.

At a glance, it looked like an easy mission.

‘For a while, anyway.’

Su-ho looked around once more.

Judging by how the room was definitely a bit larger than last time, it did seem that some difficulty adjustment had been made.

In his previous life, five of them had been trapped in a room even narrower than this.

Looking at the sand pouring down onto the finger, Su-ho thought:

‘This is why they called it the Hourglass Room.’

If you didn’t cut off all the fingers, you’d be buried alive in the sand with no way out.

Su-ho immediately drew his blood-forged blade and swung it.

Slash!

One-hit kill.

The moment he swung his sword once, Girard’s Finger was cleanly severed, and at the same time as it was cut, the whole thing crumbled into powder and collapsed.

Then, as if it had been a lie, the sand that had been pouring down suddenly stopped.

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

The system certified his success as well.

But this was only the beginning.

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

Shaaah! Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!

Once he destroyed the first finger, Girard, as if it had been waiting, stuck out the next finger.

And it began to lavishly dump out new sand.

Seeing that, Su-ho rolled his shoulders and loosened the muscles in his neck.

“Let’s get to it, then.”

Su-ho’s sword was swung once more.

*

How much time had passed?

He had cut quite a lot of fingers.

He hadn’t counted the number.

It already felt bad enough cutting the fingers themselves—he didn’t want to go so far as to count them one by one.

Besides, Su-ho knew.

That these damn fingers existed in such numbers that he would have to cut far, far more from now on than the ones he had already cut.

Naturally, the fingers he had cut weren’t all the same fingers.

Their size and volume were more or less similar, but their hardness was steadily becoming tougher.

‘That’s what Girard is aiming for.’

So this game, too, was the same as when he was dealing with the Sand Golems—like running a tedious marathon.

But that was fine.

He had lived a life that was like a marathon anyway, and he had pushed through marathon-like games countless times.

‘And I’ll have to keep running marathons from here on out, too.’

On top of that, more than anything, he had already cleared the first Big Gate once before, so now that the difficulty had been reduced by 90%, there was no reason he wouldn’t be able to clear it.

‘By the way, I wonder what kind of handicap they’re going to give this time.’

Girard’s trial didn’t end with the fingers just getting harder and dumping more sand.

The more of its fingers disappeared, the more, at some point, various limitations appeared, and the most representative of those was the incapacitation of comrades.

Because as you moved into the latter half, the fingers became so hard you absolutely couldn’t cut them alone.

‘But this time I’m alone, aren’t I?’

So this was something he would have to wait and see.

Well, it would be best if there were no handicaps at all.

This attempt had its difficulty reduced by as much as 90%, after all.

Before long, Su-ho swung his sword once more.

Slash! Thud! Crumble!

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

The sand stopped, then was poured again, and the finger was newly generated once more.

Su-ho kept on running.

*

More time passed.

Su-ho, who had simply been swinging his sword, had by now progressed to the point of using Blessing.

By this point, with only his original stats without buffs, his destruction efficiency had fallen.

As more time passed, he went as far as to use Steel Severance.

After that came the Enhancement skill, and the next stage after that was Weakening.

Blessing, Steel Severance, Enhancement, and even Weakening.

Maybe that was why.

By the time he came to use Weakening, Su-ho’s brow had started to crease endlessly.

‘When the hell is this going to end?’

By feel alone, it seemed he had cut far more fingers than when he came here in his previous life.

Yet Girard’s Fingers were still continuing to be renewed.

Su-ho irritably chopped off its finger.

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

The disappearing fingers and sand.

Watching the vanishing debris, Su-ho furrowed his brow once more.

Of course, he still had more cards left to play. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

For example, stat-boosting buffs like Rage Mode or Yeouhwabul.

But seeing how the fingers kept popping up even after he had gone as far as to use Weakening, he couldn’t shake a faint sense of unease.

‘On top of that, Weakening eats up a lot of mana, and Rage Mode and Yeouhwabul aren’t things you can keep using continuously.’

Was there really such a thing as a difficulty reduction?

That was when it happened.

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

[ Girard adds conditions to the trial. ]

[ Girard restricts a portion of your power. ]

[ The remaining number of Girard’s Fingers is in the single digits. ]

A new system notification.

Su-ho’s eyes widened as he saw the notifications.

‘It’s begun!’

As expected, the structure of the trial itself was the same this time as well.

Su-ho called this the “Last Counting.”

‘Originally it was in the double digits, but now it’s in the single digits.’

Then in the extreme case, that meant the maximum remaining count had gone from ninety-nine to nine.

It was absurd.

So this was how they lowered the difficulty?

Fine, one way or another, they had reduced it by about nine-tenths.

‘Anyway, restricting part of my skills, huh.’

That was when it happened.

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Weakening’. ]

“Huh?”

Su-ho’s brow crumpled again when he saw the notification.

It was fine.

Even without Weakening, it wasn’t like he absolutely couldn’t cut them.

But everything that came after that was truly a spectacle.

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Yeouhwabul’. ]

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Rage Mode’. ]

“You fucking...!”

Seeing the notifications, Su-ho couldn’t help but spit out a string of curses.