Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 445

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

Once the Number 3 Finger was destroyed, all the sand that had been piled up to fill the chamber vanished in sequence.

“Wow, now I can finally breathe. Good work, Cheolma.”

“Neigh.”

That had been close.

They had held out literally until the very, very last moment, so even Cheolma had been struggling.

But it was still too early to relax.

Tense, Su-ho watched the system notifications.

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

“Oh, come on...”

The notification popped up.

And it was not a welcome one.

So as soon as he saw it, Su-ho let out a groan.

Really, we’re doing this?

Even if we’re talking single digits, he’d destroyed seven already—couldn’t it cut him some slack now, at least on a human level?

But Girard, as if it were enjoying Su-ho’s silent screams, began to spew out sand.

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

And once again, it started restricting skills without fail.

Gulp.

He swallowed dryly.

What would it be?

Su-ho prayed.

Please, just not Steel Severance.

And then—

[ The power being limited is ‘Cheolma’s Horn’. ]

“Eh?”

He was taken aback for a moment, then, seeing the notification, Su-ho ground his teeth.

He’d suspected as much, but to think it would go so far as to restrict items too.

He had never seen this even in his previous life.

But he hadn’t completely ruled out the possibility.

Back then it had incapacitated people, so there was no reason it couldn’t restrict items as well.

Even so, facing the reality head-on made it impossible not to get angry.

“This is driving me insane.”

Still, it was a relief.

If the Guiyeong Spear had been restricted this turn, that really would have been the worst-case scenario.

And judging from the system’s personality, the finger in front of him was very likely the second of the two remaining fingers.

‘Because that bastard of a system is absolutely the type to do that.’

So now it was truly time to pour everything he had into the very, very end.

ShaaAAAAH!

Sand poured down violently.

Far more violently than before.

There was no time to hesitate.

Su-ho summoned a replacement for Cheolma.

“Bulgasari!”

“Bulbul!”

Bulgasari popped out at once.

It had been a while since he’d seen the creature.

This time, it would have to do the hard work.

“Block the sand being dumped from above. You can eat as much of my mana as you want.”

“Bulbul!”

When Bulgasari swelled up its body, the sand pouring down onto the finger slammed into its body and scattered in all directions.

He had almost no methods left to use now.

So, once again, Su-ho stood in front of Girard’s Finger, took his stance, and slowly started chopping away at the finger.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

......

KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!!

He swung his sword until both hands swelled and blistered.

He pounded on the finger until both hands were about to split open.

His remaining hope was Steel Severance alone.

Ignoring the sand being scattered around him, Su-ho kept swinging his sword.

“Ugh!”

Because of the blood streaming from his hands, he lost his grip on the blood-forged blade.

[ Heal is activated. ]

It was fine.

He had Heal.

After using Heal to treat his hands, Su-ho swung his sword again.

That, at least, was a relief.

If Blood Armory had been restricted, that would truly have been a complete failure with no wiggle room at all.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

......

KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!!

Su-ho focused as much as he possibly could on hacking away.

After a long while like that, just as before in the last turn, the sand pouring into the chamber had almost completely filled it.

‘Damn.’

So it wasn’t enough yet.

That meant his calculation had been off.

It couldn’t be helped.

He still had one more chance left.

“Guiyeong!”

Shhhk!

At his master’s call, the shadow divine beast appeared bravely once again.

Then it began savagely tearing into Girard’s second finger.

[ Shadow Pierce is activated. ]

[ Shadow Shackles is activated. ]

[ Shadow Bleed is activated. ]

The effect was good.

In the darkness at its back, there was nothing Guiyeong couldn’t pierce.

And sure enough, Guiyeong once again executed its mission perfectly.

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

At the same time as the finger was destroyed, all the sand vanished.

He could breathe again.

But he still couldn’t fully relax.

He still had something left to confirm.

At that moment, a system notification appeared.

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

“You son of a...!”

Seeing the system notification, Su-ho ground his teeth.

Fine.

So it really was going to trot out all nine fingers, the maximum for single digits.

Then, if there was any power that would be restricted this time...

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Guiyeong Spear’. ]

“...Ha!”

Of course.

No wonder it had restricted Cheolma’s Horn just before.

He couldn’t see it, but he could feel Girard—or rather, the system—laughing at him.

From the beginning, the system had always intended to send out all nine fingers, and in order to push him off a cliff at the edge of hope, it had deliberately restricted Cheolma’s Horn instead of the Guiyeong Spear just before this.

That way, he would fall into even deeper despair.

‘That’s you all over, system.’

It really did know how to play.

The way it inflicted such a vicious kind of hope torture.

Honestly, it wasn’t even all that surprising.

Soon, sand began to fall.

KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!

But the sound of the falling sand wasn’t normal.

As if to prove that this was the last time, the sand began to pour down like madness, and Su-ho immediately summoned Bulgasari.

“Bulgasari! Block it!”

“Bulbul!”

Bulgasari swelled its body to the absolute limit and shoved itself into the hole where the insane torrent of sand was falling, blocking the opening almost completely with its body.

It was like watching a toad trying to help Kongjwi.

“Just suffer a bit for me, Sari!”

“Bulbul!”

Bulgasari answered stoutly.

Su-ho stepped in front of the last finger and began swinging his sword.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

KKA-GAK!!

The last surviving Steel Severance activated and scraped against Girard’s Finger.

At the same time, an unprecedentedly hard and heavy roar rang out, and the backlash traveling into his hands was powerful enough to numb them.

But he endured it.

He even cast the self-buff [Endurance] on himself and endured, and endured again, as he kept using Steel Severance.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

......

KKA-GAK!! KKA-GAK!! KKA-GAK!! KKA-GAK!! ......

The fight rushing toward its end was still a tedious marathon.

But the blood and sweat soaking his grip were thicker than ever.

It was while he had been pounding away at the last finger like that for a long time.

“Buuul...!”

A groan escaped from Bulgasari’s mouth.

It had been blocking the sand hole with its entire body, but now it was finally reaching its limit.

It had to.

No matter how much it had enlarged its body, there was no way a mere living creature could handle that much sand.

And because Su-ho knew that very well, he stepped back and gave Bulgasari an order.

“Good work, Sari. Pull out now.”

“Buuul!”

Having faithfully carried out its master’s orders to the end, Bulgasari withdrew the moment it heard the command to retreat.

And then, the sand that had piled up above the hole because of Bulgasari began to flood into the chamber at an unprecedented speed, taking over the interior like madness.

KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!

The pressure was reminiscent of a waterfall pouring between massive canyon walls. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Was this the end?

No.

Watching the sand stack up in an instant, Su-ho shouted:

“Bulgasari! Time for Phase Two!”

“Bulbul!!”

At Su-ho’s order, Bulgasari, which had been groaning in pain, suddenly lit up its eyes.

Then it began to frantically devour the sand piling up.

“Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!”

Bulgasari, crazily devouring the sand, had grown its body by absorbing Su-ho’s mana.

Seeing that, Su-ho clapped his hands.

“Nice, Bulgasari!”

“Buuul!!”

Originally, Bulgasari was from the earthkeepers’ mine, a being that lived by eating its way through the inside of the mine.

It hadn’t lived like an ordinary mole, digging and pushing dirt out.

It had lived like a worm, eating through the earth from within.

And if there was a decisive difference between a worm and Bulgasari, it was that unlike a worm, which eats soil and excretes soil, Bulgasari did not stop at just eating earth—it fully digested it like real food. It didn’t even poop.

‘That was how it could dig like crazy and create those massive tunnels.’

When you dig up underground soil, you have to send it somewhere in order to create empty °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° space.

But Bulgasari was different. The reason Bulgasari could form a massive personal domain beneath the earthkeepers’ mine was because it digested all the earth it had eaten.

‘The digested soil didn’t become excrement—it was absorbed into Bulgasari, turning into its blood, its flesh, and its mana.’

And Bulgasari’s digestive ability... no, all of its abilities were influenced by its master’s mana.

In other words, infinite meals were possible.

“Good! Good! Use my mana like crazy and burn through it!”

“Buuuul!!”

With its master’s permission, the summon could now use its master’s mana like water.

It was fine.

Even so, it was just a 1-star-grade summon—no matter how much mana it used, it would only go so far.

Besides, it wasn’t like it was using that power for anything else—it was only using it to digest earth, after all. How much mana could that possibly take?

Smiling, Su-ho once again raised his middle finger toward the ceiling.

“Ha-ha! How about that? You can’t do anything to me with sand anymore!”

This was the last card Su-ho had prepared.

Right up until now, he had been putting on an act of being uneasy, in case the system caught on.

The system’s eyes were everywhere, and it imposed even greater trials on Players through observation.

Of course, this was only a strategy to eliminate the time limit.

Su-ho still had Girard’s Finger left.

After he finished his fill of mockery, Su-ho shifted his gaze to Girard’s last finger.

‘I still have that thing left... but on the flip side, I just have to cut that one.’

All his means had been restricted by now, but he wasn’t worried.

Now that the time limit was gone, Su-ho had one final move prepared to deal with the last finger.

‘I’d been wondering when I’d get to use this thing, but I didn’t expect the opportunity to come like this.’

Su-ho raised his blood-forged blade once more.

Then he began bringing it down on the last finger with all his might.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

......

KKA-GAK!! KKA-GAK!! KKA-GAK!! KKA-GAK!! ......

In the Hourglass Room, the final marathon had begun.

*

How much time had passed?

“Chomp, chomp, chomp.”

Bulgasari’s meal continued unabated.

The creature ate the endlessly pouring sand without ever feeling full.

It was all thanks to Su-ho’s mana stat, which had reached purple color.

Thanks to that, Su-ho could thrust his sword endlessly without any time limit.

But compared to that, there had been no progress.

Girard’s last finger was as hard as diamond, and in his current state—with no stat boosts, no skills, nothing—Su-ho was far too weak to break it.

Even so, Su-ho did not give up and kept swinging his sword.

His hands blistered and split open, and he had lost count of how many times he had healed them back up.

But Su-ho didn’t let out so much as a single groan and silently kept swinging his sword.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

KKA-GAK!

Another Steel Severance. But then—

JJEO-JEOK!

On Girard’s last finger, a short blade-mark, like a hairline crack that had never appeared before, was engraved.

Seeing that, Su-ho’s eyes shone.

‘Finally!’

Su-ho swung his sword once more.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

KKA-GAK!

Another crack split open.

And then—

JJEO-JEOK!

Another blade-mark was engraved.

At that moment, in front of Su-ho’s eyes, a system notification appeared that he hadn’t seen in a long time... but that he had wanted to see more than any other.

[ At your persistent effort, ■■ smiles. ]

It was the moment Su-ho’s swordsmanship awakened to yet another level.