The Player Who Can't Level Up

“What do you mean, Angels? Those wings… Haa…” Tae-Shik couldn’t hide his confusion. He knew demons existed, so angels existing made sense, but standing before one felt surreal. 

“Umm… Well…” Gi-Gyu began his explanation after hesitating for a while.

***

“Dammit! Why is this so hard?!” Gi-Gyu shouted in frustration. 

Fwoosh!

The holy sword he was holding scattered from the handle to the top and turned into fine powder.

Rattle.

Seconds later, a few skeletons came up to him, swept the holy powder into the dustpan Gi-Gyu brought from home, and took it to Old Man Hwang per his request. While the skeleton worked, Gi-Gyu grabbed his head and murmured, “There are less than ten swords left now.”

He had countless swords not too long ago; he had pulverized a majority without getting a single successful outcome. 

-Umm. 

When Lou woke up, he suggested,

-I think this place might be the problem.

“What?” Gi-Gyu gasped in shock since Lou suggested this place in the first place. Yet, seconds after waking up, he said Gi-Gyu was working in the wrong place. How could Gi-Gyu not be angry and frustrated?

-The magic in this place is way darker and thicker than I thought. Consequently, Death’s growth rate is way above Life’s. I wonder if the holy swords’ revival is being impeded by this place’s dense magic and your much bigger Death.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” 

-I ain’t omniscient, Boy. Besides, Life isn’t my power. It’s El’s. So, I can only throw guesses without being sure of anything.

“Haa…” Gi-Gyu sighed deeply. He had to admit assuming Lou knew everything was a mistake. Being the lord of Death, Lou wasn’t an expert in Life and was only good for guesses. 

“Then what should I do?” When Gi-Gyu asked, Lou replied,

-Leave the gate and try it in your basement.

“And what if it doesn’t work again?” 

-Why do you keep asking me? If it doesn’t work, I guess it can’t be helped.

Gi-Gyu realized his current best course of action was to follow Lou’s suggestion, so he went to find Old Man Hwang after asking the skeletons to take down the makeshift tent. 

“Well, I’ve actually made some decent progress. But I still need a holy sword to make this work,” Old Man Hwang requested.

“Of course. I will get you one no matter what, Sir,” Gi-Gyu replied confidently. 

“Thank you.” 

Thankfully, there was progress on at least one end. Gi-Gyu packed the remaining holy swords and was about to leave when Hart approached him. 

“The slave wants an audience with you, Grandmaster,” Hart announced.

“Rogers wants to see me?” Gi-Gyu frowned at the unpleasant news. Despite getting continuously whipped for it, Rogers kept kneeling and requesting to meet Gi-Gyu. 

“Hmm.” Gi-Gyu considered talking to Rogers, but this wasn’t the right time. His current top priority was to restore El. 

Gi-Gyu replied, “Tell him I’ll see him later. If he still disobeys you and insists, just cut off one of his legs and reattach it.”

“Your wish is my command, Grandmaster.” Hart bowed respectfully. With Hart’s power and the great potion, reattaching Rogers’ leg wouldn’t be hard. And even if it didn’t work, Gi-Gyu couldn't care less about the lost leg. 

With this thought, he left the gate and resumed the reviving process in his basement. One improvement was that Lou was now providing an approximate guide as Gi-Gyu directed Life. 

And finally…

“Success!” Gi-Gyu exclaimed. Lou must have been right about the gate. Perhaps the thick magic inside the gate was really the problem. After all, Gi-Gyu found success in his first attempt outside the gate. 

The holy sword trembled. Gi-Gyu couldn’t hear anything from it, but he was certain it was alive now. He considered attempting to sync with it, but Old Man Hwang needed this sword, so he just handed the restored holy sword to Old Man Hwang to help him with El. 

-Now, keep practicing until you know you can do it well.

When Lou suggested, Gi-Gyu agreed, “Got it!” 

Gi-Gyu felt confident after his first success. He took a brief break to restore his drained stamina and resumed working. Unfortunately, he failed a few more times. But when there were only three swords left, something changed. 

“S-something feels different!” Gi-Gyu stammered in panic. While he was in the middle of injecting Life into a holy sword, he felt a huge change inside his shell: Life was inflating rapidly.

Lou yelled,

-Focus! If you let Life explode like this, you’ll lose it!

‘Lose Life? I’ll lose this new power?’

Gi-Gyu couldn’t let this happen since it would mean no chance of revival for El. 

Lou continued to shout in frustration,

-Yes, you'll lose Life; you’ll also lose your life. You’ll die, you fuckin’ idiot! 

Concentrating on Lou’s words, Gi-Gyu tried to carefully regulate the injection of Life. However, bringing Life back to normal once it was close to exploding took a lot of time. Gi-Gyu was soaked in sweat, and he felt intense pain near his heart. 

And…

Boom!

Life’s Root inside his shell exploded.

***

-Lately, you’ve been doing your best to kill yourself. Stop it already, you bastard! 

Lou shouted as he and Gi-Gyu used everything they had to fix the situation. The Root had exploded; Gi-Gyu was meditating and monitoring his shell to pull it back. Unfortunately, the Root was ripped into small pieces, flying all over the place. Just looking at his shell was very difficult for Gi-Gyu, so restoring everything was bound to take much time and effort. Enduring the severe pain, he strived to get the Root pieces back and finally got one back to its place after what seemed like an eternity. The moment he accomplished this, the Egos next to Life formed a thin membrane so that it couldn’t escape again. 

Now, Gi-Gyu needed to get the rest of the pieces. 

“Ugh.” Gi-Gyu groaned in pain as he began to move another piece. He had to use every ounce of his strength to get this second piece into its place. 

But…

“This piece is… getting sucked in!” Gi-Gyu told Lou when he felt one of the pieces dashing toward the holy sword’s nucleus Gi-Gyu was working on. Before Gi-Gyu could do anything to stop it, the Root piece entered the holy sword; then, the sword stopped accepting any more Life.

Gi-Gyu was close to returning several pieces when this happened, so the distraction made him lose some of these pieces.

And…

“Ackkk!” Gi-Gyu suddenly screamed as he let go of the holy sword. One of the Root pieces had escaped his shell, used the blood vessels to roam in his body, and finally taken a seat inside his only normal eye. 

“It… it hurts…” Drooling, Gi-Gyu looked dazed as he mumbled. With the burning pain in his eye, his hair instantly turned white. He dropped the holy sword he was holding; he could also feel the sword vibrating strangely. 

-That… F…

Gi-Gyu could barely hear Lou’s voice. At this rate, he would die. 

Plop.

Thinking he had to do something, Gi-Gyu tried to move his feet. But he no longer had any control over his body. So, his endeavor ended up with him stumbling and falling. 

-G…e…t… u…p…

To Gi-Gyu, everything Lou said sounded like a cassette stuck in slo-mo mode. Instinctively, Gi-Gyu tried to focus on Lou’s words and made another unfortunate attempt to stand up. The lack of strength in his legs made him realize that he needed something to support himself. 

The two things closest to him were the last two holy swords; the moment he touched them, they sucked in two Root pieces. Then, he silently collapsed. 

***

“...” Tae-Shik gaped. He knew what holy swords were, he knew Gi-Gyu could sync with strange objects, and he knew those strange objects made Gi-Gyu stronger. However, Gi-Gyu could now control Life? Tae-Shik couldn’t even comprehend the concept. And whatever was up with reviving dead holy swords? Was that a code word for something? 

Tae-Shik briefly entertained the possibility that Gi-Gyu was lying. However, Gi-Gyu looked very serious while explaining, and he also did have creatures with pure white wings behind him.  

“Ha.” Tae-Shik snorted with mixed emotions. 

“And when I opened my eyes, these three were here,” Gi-Gyu explained as he pointed at the three angels. Scratching his head, he continued, “At first, I thought they were enemies who came here to attack me. But because I had no energy left from working on my shell and injecting Life, I couldn’t defend myself. I assumed that I would die here.”

When Gi-Gyu took a long pause, Tae-Shik couldn’t control his curiosity anymore and asked, “Then what happened?” 

“Suddenly”—shaking his head with a confused smile—“they called me ‘Father.’”

***

“You are…” Gi-Gyu looked at the three figures before him with a confused countenance. He could tell they were powerful with a glance, so were they enemies?

‘How did they get inside?’ Gi-Gyu wondered. The security around his basement was strong. Baal was very proud of his barrier, so Gi-Gyu felt certain it wasn’t something that could be easily broken into. So how did these men and a woman get inside? 

‘No.’ Gi-Gyu shook his head. How they got in wasn’t important right now; why they were standing before him was. To his confusion, he couldn’t feel any hostility from them. 

‘Bi…’ Gi-Gyu tried to call for his wolf, but it didn’t work. Perhaps it was because there was a problem with his shell. He couldn’t hear any of his other Egos either, and his connection to them felt weak. He was like a feeble kitten now. 

Gi-Gyu began to feel desperate. He was reminded again of how dependent he was on his Egos. Without them, he was nothing. A weak, self-deprecating laugh escaped his lips. 

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

“...?” The three figures suddenly knelt before him. All Gi-Gyu could do then was stare in confusion. 

A short silence fell. He was agitated, but his connection to his Egos began to return as time passed. Gradually, his control over his body also returned; soon, he could fight these three intruders. 

Gi-Gyu began to feel a sliver of hope. 

‘Lou!’ He tried to call out to Lou, but his voice still wasn’t reaching his Egos. He began to feel useless again when one kneeling figure suddenly whispered, “Father.”

“...?” Still collapsed on the floor, Gi-Gyu looked up at the man. The man was gazing at him solemnly. 

‘Father?’

“Y-you mean me?” Gi-Gyu stammered.

“Father. I have sinned by looking down at you. I shall accept any punishment you see fit.” When the man announced, the other two and the woman bowed even deeper. 

-Kekeke. This is nuts. You’re a crazy but incredible bastard.

Gi-Gyu heard Lou’s voice. Feeling relieved, he was about to ask Lou for help when Lou continued,

-I told you to restore the holy swords, but you ended up making angels.

“What?”

Gi-Gyu looked up again in shock.