Leveling Up through Eating

63 How to Make Half-God Artifacts

Kim Daesik jumped up from his seat. He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“Th, those fools!” 

They were currently in a situation where they did not know whether Beas Village would disappear or not. And in that situation, trouble came up between the three strongest players present.

Director Kim Daesik couldn’t help but collapse on his seat as he stared blankly at the monitor.

“It might have been possible if those three people were together but……” 

Judging from the situation, only the two people, Ali and Minhyuk, would go up together. Of course, the situation that arose from Kentaro was not incomprehensible but the reason why Director Kim Daesik was mad was because of something else.

They could hear their voices through the speaker.

[This is why Koreans can’t do it.]

[They won’t be able to see the face of the Ancient Monarch.]

[Accompanying a Lv355 user? They’re both going to die. A mage with low HP needs to have a dedicated and outstanding tanker in front of him but what can a Lv355 user offer?]

“What do you think our Korean users are!!” 

It was this part that made the anger in Director Kim Daesik boil! The mockery from the world! He fiercely gulped down cold water but whether it was to relieve his anger or moisten his throat, no one knew. 

Then, Lee Minhwa spoke.

“Director.” 

The furious Director Kim Daesik turned his head towards her.

“I think that this situation is good.” 

“Huh?” 

Lee Minhwa, who had just removed the tag of being the new employee, was now at the center of the team. Since she always served beside Team Leader Park Minggyu as an assistant, she could easily predict more than what Director Kim could.

“Users Ali and Minhyuk are both unimaginably strong. But since it was quite difficult to clear the raid with only a few team members then the other users would have to match and recruit five people in their teams. But that also means that there are many people who will share the scores. But I think that those two people will be able to do their parts well. In addition, User Ali is……”

She smiled.

“He’s not just the number one in the official and unofficial mage rankings in our country. The level of his strength is just a little below Alex, the rank one in the world’s official mage rankings. However, he had also learned a higher class of magic.”

“……!”

It wouldn’t make sense that the staff in other teams would know about everything in the world. But the Special Users Management Team had richer data compared to other teams.

“Th, then there’s hope? With just the two of them?”

Lee Minhwa nodded her head. A thought suddenly flashed through Director Kim Daesik’s head.

“But if the two of them successfully hunted the Ancient Monarch with a high score, what will be the reward?”

“Based on the current ‘rewards based on score’, there’s an ‘unreachable score’.” 

Director Kim nodded his head as he continued to listen to Lee Minhwa.

“When someone reaches that unreachable score the Ancient Treasure Chest will give a reward on the method of creating Half-God artifacts.”

***

Kentaro laughed at the three fools in front of him that had their arms raised to the sky.

“I see. I understand.” 

He thought that perhaps the robed guy was also infected by the idiotic thoughts of the Korean next to him. But Kentaro still believed that people should have a clear and distinctive line between their public and private lives.

Ali had now missed an opportunity to receive great rewards. A variable had risen but instead of that variable, he should have chosen the rewards. And now, the worst combination for a mage was formed in front of him.

Kentaro turned around and moved to find members for his party again. Of course, there were no other people who were willing to receive the Black Mage Ali and Minhyuk.

“It’s fine. I’d rather be with Minhyuk-nim than be with those people.” 

Ali said this in case Minhyuk felt sorry for him. Minhyuk just nodded silently at him. Then, the notifications rang.

[Please enter the Berest Mountains.]

[The passageway to Berest Mountains will appear according to the number of teams.]

[You cannot leave and escape the passageway given to you and hunt on other passageways.]

[The number of monsters, ranking of monsters, as well as the tricks that will appear will be the same for each and every team.]

[Additional scores will be rewarded to the team that arrives the earliest at the summit where the Ancient Monarch resides.]

Just like in the notification, even if the party had a smaller number, the strength and number of the ancient soldiers and warriors would not be lowered. This was the reason why the most optimal number of members in a team was five.

More than ten teams entered their respective passageways. The passageways were covered with transparent barriers so they could see each other but they were not able to pass through this barrier. Other parties had at least 4~6 people entering their passageways but Minhyuk and Ali were the only people who entered their passageway.

***

Kentaro began to climb upwards through the passageway that he entered with the best members that he had recruited.

‘The strengthened Ancient Monarch……’ 

They were unclear about how strong he would be so it would be a huge problem. So he needed the best combination for his party.

“Jun, you said that you’re a tanker, grab the aggro in front of me and me and the archer user, Barmas-nim will hit them hard. You might already know this but I can deal high damage so you don’t have to worry about that. In addition, if the mobs get crowded, our mage user, Burrow-nim, should use a wide-area of magic from time to time to fend them off.” 

“Yes.” 

Everyone seemed to have a strong faith in Kentaro’s strength. Especially because Kentaro already had experience climbing the Berest Mountains to hunt the Ancient Monarch.

Not long after, the ancient soldiers appeared in front of them. The ancient soldiers were wearing leather armor with ragged and torn capes fluttering behind them. They were also holding a long spear in their hands.

‘It’s no different than before.’

They would experience and encounter a variety of things the further they climbed the mountains. As he recalled the process that they went through to climb the mountains, he remembered that there were only three teams that were able to climb the mountains. In fact, he knew that the fastest team to climb would most likely be the one to hunt the Ancient Monarch. In addition, the higher their score, the higher their rewards. This would allow the fastest team to monopolize the Ancient Monarch.

Shweeeeeeeeek─

Then, the battle against the five ancient soldiers began. Jun stood at the forefront as he strengthened his body and prevented their spearheads from touching the rest of his team members.

Bang! Bang, bang!

“Keuhack! These bastards are a pain! And if you use defensive skills, their spears get stuck!” 

The user priest immediately casted heal and tiny lights wrapped around tanker Jun’s body. Then, the katanas hanging on Kentaro’s back were now tightly held in his hands.

Musashi.

It was his legendary class.

“First strike. Quick.” 

[First Strike. Quick.]

[A single blow will attack the enemy quickly.]

Light stretched out from his katana as he struck out once.

Shwaa!

An ancient soldier was pierced through by the katana but he just stood there without moving.

[You have acquired 5 team points.]

[Each person will gain 2 individual points.]

If the overall score of the team was high then the rewards for all of the team members would also significantly increase. And among the team, those with higher individual scores would also get much better rewards compared to the rest of the team.

Dash—

Kentaro quickly dashed forward and dealt with the ancient soldiers with his flamboyant sword skills.

“Let’s go up as fast as we can to hunt the Ancient Monarch.” 

That’s right. Kentaro was all arrogant and conceited because he did not know how strong the Ancient Monarch was now. All that he could think of was to go up as fast as he could and monopolize the Ancient Monarch.

He looked around at his surroundings. He could see different teams climbing up through the different passageways. The situation was still normal since the ancient soldiers were only 40% stronger than the usual. But the problem was that ancient warriors would also appear which meant that the difficulty would increase as they climbed up.

At that moment, Kentar’s eyes passed by the figure of two men. They were the Black Mage Ali and the Lv355 user earlier.

“What are they doing?” 

The unidentified man was running fast while the Black Mage Ali was chasing after him. There were more than 30 ancient soldiers that were coming after them. He could see that there were even ancient warriors among the mobs.

But at that exact moment, something amazing happened. The mage user wielded his staff as a black ring rose over the heads of the ancient soldiers.

‘Undead boom?’ 

Undead boom was a magic that could only be performed by a high-leveled mage. This magic was clearly divided between success and failure. If the mage succeeded then he would be able to catch all of the undead mobs at once. The probability of success would increase depending on the mage’s level. But in all honesty, it was quite hard for a high-leveled mage to catch the undead mobs with the undead boom.

However, Kentaro was shocked. It wasn’t just one, a completed black ring was formed over the heads of forty ancient soldiers.

“Wh, what the hell?” 

Kentaro had never seen such a huge and massive undead boom in his life. 

Then, he saw Ali lift the staff high up in the sky. A powerful, brilliant and bright light bursted out of his staff. Then……

Bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Out of the 40 ancient soldiers, more than 30 of them exploded.

‘Crazy shit……! High-leveled mages said that the success rate for the undead boom was just at 40%……!’ 

But he was able to hunt with such a huge undead boom?

‘I think he’s a very unexpected high-level user, right? But that’s fine. That guy is a burden to him.’

Kentaro grinned at the man named Minhyuk. Then, he said……

“Let’s go! Quickly!”

“Yes!”

Kentaro and his group quickly climbed up the mountain.

***

After using the undead boom, Ali heard a notification.

[You have acquired 158 team points.]

[Each person will gain 75 individual points.]

The Great Undead Boom was a skill that would simultaneously cast the undead boom on all undead monsters within a 20-m radius. In addition, the probability of success and failure was dependent on the WIS, INT and the mage’s class.

‘I didn’t know that Minhyuk-nim has such great aggro……’

Ali shook his head as his brows furrowed in thought.

‘But why does it look like he’s so familiar with that aggro skill?’

Strange.

He heard something about it once but it was just a vague piece of memory so he thought little of it.

Among the fallen ancient soldiers, ten ancient soldiers and one ancient warrior remained. In the event of failure, the undead boom would not give even 1% of damage but would instead eat away at the mana of the user. In other words, the risk was high. But Ali was already at a point that was higher than the rest of the mages so he believed that his skills were more than enough. He was confident in himself.

Still, he quickly moved in front of Minhyuk using Blink.

“Minhyuk-nim, stay behind me! I still have a lot of MP!”

It was all thanks to Minhyuk’s buff ability that he had gained an additional 25% of MP. His MP’s natural recovery was also increased due to the increase in his WIS and INT.

“Firewall!”

A great wall of fire rose from the ground! The fire blocked the ancient soldiers and created a gap. In that short gap, Ali quickly casted and shot his magic.

“Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!”

A huge fireball that was extremely different from the regular mage’s fireball shot out from Ali’s staff.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

‘What the hell?! Why is this punk not dying?!’

Ali’s face suddenly distorted. An ancient warrior garbed in a thick golden armor approached Ali’s giant fireball without even a wince.

‘Don’t tell me that they have 100% magical defense?!’

Sometimes monsters that have high magical defense would breakthrough and achieve such a skill. Mages were most powerless against these types of adversaries. These kinds of monsters would reduce magical damage by as much as 80%.

‘Were in trouble. If all the ancient warriors are like this……’

Then his magic would become useless.

Then, at that moment, he heard a voice from behind him.

“Please wait. Like the Wind.”

Dash!

He heard the sound of the wind passing by his side as he saw the gigantic 2m 50cm ancient warrior that was holding a greatsword. Then, Minhyuk’s sword moved.

Shwaa—

It was just a single blow.

And with just that one blow.

Plop!

The head of the ancient warrior fell down. Ali’s head turned to look at the fallen head as well as Minhyuk alternately. He turned for at least five times in just three seconds.

‘Wh, what the hell?’

What’s going on?

And in his head, information about a person suddenly popped out. He just couldn’t remember the name. Weren’t there times like that? For everyone?

His head blanked out like a white sheet of paper as he unconsciously asked.

“Y, you. Just who are you?” 

At his question, Minhyuk just raised his left arm with the ‘X’ and said……

“Frieeeeeeeeeeeeend!” 

Then, he grinned.

***

Notes

Regarding Half-God, someone suggested that I use demigod. But demigod means that it’s a being born from a god and a mortal and I think that it’s not appropriate for the context. Although it sounds a bit awkward, I still decided to just retain Half-God since the artifacts and skills were basically just halfway to the God rank. Somewhere in between legendary and God rank.

TL’s corner!

Frieeeeeeeeeend!