Chapter 108

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 108: Bestowing Skills

[The Lord of Chaos, Hercules, has sworn an oath on his very existence. Will you accept?]

There was no room for doubt with the system message appearing.

As soon as I clicked "Yes," a red light swirled around Hercules and then dissipated.

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Are you planning to move in earnest now?"

When he asked, I explained that I intended to recruit apostles and expand my faction.

"Right, doing it alone is tough."

"But recently, Asgard keeps sending warnings."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing too extreme, really..."

I briefly explained what happened in Kevrian.

Hercules gave me an incredulous look.

"If I were Asgard, I’d have punished you regardless of penalties. Maybe they’re holding back because they lack concrete evidence..."

"Is it that bad?"

"Yeah. They’d be furious. It’s like losing a whole colony."

A colony, huh... That’s a fitting term.

"Time to hold back a little and focus on growing stronger."

"Exactly. No matter how strong a soul awakener you are, you’re still just at A-rank. If they make a concerted effort, they can definitely hinder you."

Hercules gave his advice.

I also thought it was time to be more cautious.

Even though I didn’t destroy Kevrian and Kalvine directly, helping them out could leave a trail.

That would be a headache.

"What about the A-rank dungeon?"

"Can it be maintained?"

"It’s possible."

"Then I’ll leave it to you. I’m thinking of bringing a C-rank apostle there."

Lee Jinseong is relatively weak.

I’d thought about training him to B-rank.

Hercules gave me a strange look.

"Training, huh... Do you really need to?"

"Why?"

"Because if you just take less SP from an apostle, they’ll grow on their own."

I can adjust how much SP I collect?

I checked the Apostle Skill tab, but there was no such option.

When I mentioned that, Hercules told me to level up the skill right away.

"Hey, skills are only useful if they’re at least level 10. Upgrade the Apostle Skill."

I upgraded the Apostle Skill as he suggested.

Raising it to level 10 consumed a total of 1 million SP.

It was a significant cost, but since I’d already committed to apostles, it was worth investing in.

Once it reached level 10, new features appeared.

[The Guardian's Blessing "Bestow Guardian’s Ability" has been enhanced.]

[The Guardian's Blessing "Bestow Skills" has been added.]

[The Guardian's Blessing "Experience Boost" has been added.]

Two additional blessings were added, and the existing "Bestow Guardian’s Ability" was upgraded.

In the Apostle window, a new option labeled [Adjust SP Collection] caught my eye.

When I clicked it, a more detailed window appeared.

[Adjust SP Collection Amount]

[Current: "Medium" setting]

There were five levels from "None" on the left to "Maximum" on the right.

The current setting was right in the middle.

I adjusted it to "None," and a warning message popped up again.

[SP Collection can only be adjusted once every month. Are you sure you want to proceed?]

[If SP Collection is set to None, the apostle will autonomously use SP to invest in their abilities. Used SP will not be refunded. Are you sure you want to proceed?]

I checked Lee Jinseong’s stats.

[Name: Lee Jinseong

Class: Warrior

Guardian: Kim Jiho

Title: -

Level: 73

Strength: 71

Agility: 21

Magic: 11

Collectible SP: 1,432]

He was all-in on strength.

With only 1,432 collectible SP, it wasn’t even a big loss.

When I clicked "Yes," the collectible SP dropped to zero, and his stats started growing automatically.

Even his level was changing.

After a moment, the final numbers were as follows:

[Name: Lee Jinseong

Class: Warrior

Guardian: Kim Jiho

Title: -

Level: 77

Strength: 77

Agility: 34

Magic: 22

Collectible SP: 0]

"Why did his stats increase this much?"

I was dumbfounded.

Hercules spoke from beside me.

"Now you understand how much the Olympian gods squeeze their apostles? They probably squeeze them to the max. That’s why they only gain one stat per two levels."

"I adjusted it to one stat per level, though."

"That’s still stingy. Back when we were growing up in Olympus, we got 10 stats per level."

Wow.

So this is how they manipulate it?

Unbelievable.

Well, these guys didn’t care about their apostles’ levels since they planned to return to the past.

They’d just squeeze every bit out of them and reset everything upon returning.

"When you become a god, maintaining immortality constantly consumes SP. If apostles don’t supply enough SP, gods can even be sealed due to lack of SP."

"Really? So becoming a god doesn’t mean it’s over."

"Exactly. That’s when a new set of struggles begins. Anyway, if you want apostles to grow quickly, just don’t collect SP. Still, I recommend collecting a little."

"Why?"

"Collecting even a small amount steadily raises efficiency. They call it SP Collection Efficiency. That’s what the other gods say."

Since I’d eventually have to collect SP from the apostles, it was probably better to make gradual adjustments.

Hercules could’ve told me earlier...

I’d already set it to "None."

Well, Lee Jinseong is still only C-rank, so I’ll adjust it later.

He’ll grow more for now.

"Thanks for the advice."

"Sure. I’ll be expecting results since I’ve sworn an oath."

With that, Hercules disappeared.

Once he was gone, I opened the Apostle window.

Now that SP collection was handled, it was time to check the Guardian’s Blessings.

The "Bestow Guardian’s Ability" upgrade changed it from 1% of my stats to 2%.

I wondered what the "Experience Boost" percentage would be...

[Experience Boost]

[Increases the experience gained by apostles by 10%.]

Thankfully, it was 10%.

Still, it felt like a modest number.

The 2% boost in my stats seemed far more valuable.

Even just reflecting the Order faction puts my current stats at about 250, and with all stats increasing by 5 each...

“Granting the Apostle a Guardian’s skill...”

[Guardian’s Skill Bestowal]

[Bestows one of the Guardian’s skills upon the Apostle. The Apostle receives a downgraded version of the skill. Skills ranked S or higher cannot be bestowed.]

If S-rank or higher isn’t allowed, that means the max is A-rank?

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

A downgraded A-rank skill... Hmm, not ideal.

For someone like Diana or Drakia, a downgraded A-rank skill probably won’t be much help.

Though it would be useful for someone like Jinseong, who’s still C-rank.

Wait… Can soul-related skills be bestowed as well?

Or would that be impossible unless the Apostle is a Soul Awakener?

Suddenly curious, I tried granting Jinseong, who currently had no blessings, the Guardian’s Skill Bestowal blessing.

A list of possible skills appeared, and soul-related skills were there too.

Except for Soul Emission.

[Soul Mediation]

[Soul Reaping]

[Soul Trading]

Soul Mediation and Soul Reaping are possible too?

Those skills don’t have ranks.

I honestly thought soul-related skills wouldn’t be allowed...

I clicked on Soul Mediation.

[Apostle Jinseong is not a Soul Awakener. The efficiency of Soul Mediation drastically decreases, and he cannot perform Soul Mediation independently. He will assist Guardian Kim Jiho’s Soul Mediation. Do you still wish to select this skill?]

The efficiency drops, but there doesn’t seem to be any major penalty.

Plus, if he’s assisting my Soul Mediation, doesn’t that make it better?

I pressed "Yes."

A message popped up.

[Apostle Jinseong has been granted the Soul Mediation skill.]

[Apostle Jinseong is not a Soul Awakener. Efficiency drastically decreases, and he assists Guardian Kim Jiho’s Soul Mediation.]

[The efficiency of the ‘Soul Mediation’ skill increases by 1%.]

[Some of the SP earned from the increased efficiency will be shared with Jinseong, up to 10% of the earnings.]

0.5%...?

That’s pretty stingy.

But at least it’s an increase.

And 10% of 0.5% goes to Jinseong?

Hmm.

With 600,000 SP, 0.5% is 3,000 SP.

10% of that is 300 SP going to Jinseong.

It felt stingy, but I remembered Jinseong only had 1,432 SP before.

Compared to that, 300 is quite significant.

I should try applying this to the other Apostles too.

When I applied it to Diana and Drakia, their efficiency increases were 5% and 2%, respectively—better than Jinseong’s.

Maybe it’s the rank difference?

Diana is A-rank, and Drakia is B-rank...

They could each take 10% of the earned SP as well.

The Soul Mediation efficiency increased by 8% in no time, raising the income from 600,000 SP to 650,000 SP.

Beautiful.

While I was feeling satisfied, a message came from Drakia.

[Why did you suddenly take back the stat blessing? Soul Mediation? I can’t even use this skill—why did you change it?]

Drakia was complaining in the message.

I replied briefly.

[It gives you 600 SP a day. You don’t really need stat boosts right now, do you?]

[600? Hm...]

[It could increase even more later with SP.]

[Well... guess I’ll try it out then.]

She had been ready to argue, but her attitude shifted quickly once she heard about the SP gain.

In contrast, Diana was an angel.

[Jiho, can the distribution ratio be adjusted? I’m okay without the SP. You can set mine to 0 if you want...]

She was receiving 1,500 SP.

No need to be stingy about that.

[No, just take it. I’m giving the same to all the Apostles.]

[Thank you.]

After settling the distribution ratios, I looked at the remaining slots in the Apostle Garden.

Raising it to level 10 increased the slots to 15.

Twelve slots were left.

If I recruited 12 C-rank Hunters and assigned them the skill...

That would increase efficiency by 12%.

Adding that to the current 8% makes 20%?

Nice.

I’ll definitely have to increase the number of Apostles once I receive the skills from my father.

After finishing the rough plan, I turned my attention to the A-rank dungeon portal.

Hercules said I should just adjust the ratio instead of nurturing the Apostles, but wouldn’t it be better to adjust the ratio and nurture them at the same time?

I summoned Jinseong.

The moment he appeared, he ran over to me.

“Hey, why did my level go up on its own? And what’s with these stats?”

“That’s proof you’ve been exploited by a god until now. Since you’re not losing SP anymore, it’s being automatically invested.”

“Whoa... awesome. So I’ll keep growing like this?”

“Yeah. You got the Soul Mediation skill, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’ll earn you SP on its own. The SP will then be automatically invested to increase your stats.”

“Sweet.”

Jinseong gave me a thumbs-up.

I asked him a question.

“How was the Apostle Space?”

“Oh, it’s a great place to rest.”

“Really? What showed up for you?”

“At first, it was just a room with a bed. But suddenly, modern conveniences started appearing. I was booting up the computer when I got summoned.”

“Uh... when was this?”

“Just now.”

Hmm...

There’s no reason for it to change suddenly.

Maybe because I invested SP?

Seems like raising the skill level improves the Apostle’s living environment.

“Isn’t that an A-rank dungeon portal?”

Jinseong asked, looking uneasy as he saw the portal at the mountain summit.

“Yeah. I called you to see if I could boost your experience.”

“You mean power leveling? No way. Some wealthy Hunters poured money into experiments and found that you can’t gain experience from dungeons more than two ranks above you.”

Jinseong stated firmly.

No power leveling, huh...?

Hmm.

“Still, it might change if your rank increases. Let’s try.”

“Fine by me. No harm in trying.”

So we entered the A-rank dungeon together.

But as Jinseong said, there was no experience gain.

Even when I massacred monsters or left them half-dead for Jinseong to finish off, his experience didn’t increase.

In the end, only I came out with a slight increase in stats from Soul Reaping and stat absorption.

“Told you it wouldn’t work.”

“Man... feels like a waste to run B-rank dungeons.”

“Hey, this is Eshtar, right? Just stick around here. Once I’m B-rank, you can power level me.”

“Yeah, that might be best.”

I dropped him off at the magic city of Erundal and returned to the A-rank dungeon.

Hmm...

I need to increase the number of C-rank Hunter Apostles, but I can’t do that carelessly until I receive the skills from my father.

For now, I focused on running A-rank dungeons until I got the skills.

But even after waiting a while, there was no word from my father.

He said it would be a few days, but it’s taking longer than expected...

After running nearly 30 A-rank dungeons and accumulating close to 20 million SP, I was about to increase Soul Mediation’s level when I finally received a message from my father.

[Sorry for the wait. Pollux, the guardian of the seal, caused a delay. We received a message from the sealed gods.]

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]