Chapter 158

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 158: Soul Fusionist A-Rank (1)

A quest from Artemis?

There was something fishy about her... but first, let’s check the details.

[Special Quest]

[Difficulty: Impossible]

[Free Artemis]

[The Moon Goddess Artemis has become a sacrifice for ???? by Zeus. She believed him when he said he’d release her once he ascended to the position of Creator, and cooperated. But even after reaching EX rank, Zeus has shown no interest in her.

Quest Reward – Apostlehood of Artemis]

A brief background story appeared in the Apostle Quest tab.

Artemis is supposed to be Zeus’ daughter, right?

Did this bastard really sell off his own daughter?

He really is something else.

—My soul body was briefly released, so I left a message. Please free me. If I can regain my true self, I will do anything for you.

A short message was attached at the bottom of the quest window.

A desperate-sounding message.

Seeing as the reward is Artemis becoming an apostle, she must be betting everything on this freedom.

But to free Artemis… I'd have to fight that voice.

I’m not confident about that.

That green gem that appeared every time Artemis’ body was burned...

Just facing it made my soul freeze.

When I heard the voice, I nearly lost my mind.

[Sigh. I shouldn't go back to Kalvine. The presence of the one who devoured Artemis is far too powerful.]

“You know who it is?”

[No. But it’s likely a uniquely powerful being, even among the divine.]

“Wouldn’t that make it EX rank?”

[No. EX rank is a different class entirely. This one doesn’t seem to be that strong. And if Zeus had that much power, he wouldn’t be wasting time controlling Artemis’ soul. He would’ve killed you on the spot instead of running away.]

Well, that's a relief.

If Zeus’s ally were EX rank too, there’d be no hope.

When I brought up the Artemis liberation quest, Drakia had some thoughts.

[It’s fine if you want to make Artemis your apostle… but you’d need to be at least SSS rank, wouldn’t you? You’d have to be of equal rank to her.]

“Yeah, that’s the issue.”

[It's rare for a deity to willingly become someone’s apostle. If you could take her as an Apostle God, she’d be a tremendous help. But for now, the quest seems useless. Unless your rank goes up, that is.]

So, it’s a quest I can’t complete at my current rank.

[Anyway, I’ll be heading off. Artemis’ attack drained too much of my SP.]

“Right. Take care.”

Once the Dragon God left, I used Return to go back to my house on Earth.

As soon as I arrived, I opened my status window.

[Name? Kim Jiho

Class? Soul God

Title? Godslayer

Soul Power – 10,000

SP? 310 million]

[Name – Kim Jiho

Class – Soul Fusionist

Level – 197

Guardian Deity –

Title – Earth’s Number One

Strength – High

Agility – High

Magic – High

Origin – Unavailable

SP – 310 million (Shared)]

My level jumped in an instant.

Just 3 more levels and I’d hit 200—A-rank.

Shame I didn’t push a bit harder earlier.

After checking my stats, I summoned my soul sword.

The upgraded sword.

The seal was broken, but I couldn’t tell what changed.

It looked the same on the outside.

Looking through the earlier messages, I found some detailed stats.

SP Conversion from Soul Energy Emission went from 60% to 70%, and the max SP per burst increased from 500,000 to 5 million.

Soul absorption efficiency also improved.

Both are definitely good, so no complaints there.

But what really bothers me is the sword’s special effect.

It supposedly activates with the partial release of the seal, but I still don’t know what it is.

“Soul Energy Emission.”

Even after using it, the white flame aura of the sword looked the same as always.

The being who controlled Artemis ran away—maybe something did trigger.

A critical hit, maybe?

Seriously, what the hell is this sword?

Trying to recall its origin...

Back when I was just trying to become an Awakener and ended up with two status windows from drinking a beer.

It was one of four items in my inventory.

The walkthrough book, the orb that created the recycling window, the letter linked to the sealed divine realm...

And this sword.

At first, it didn’t even respond.

I thought it was just a black stick.

“Come to think of it, Loki gave me that whole gift package.”

The bundle that was given to me when he was disguised as Aurelia, tricking the sealed gods.

I didn’t question it back then since I was being cautious against Asgard, but now that I’m a creditor…

I should ask him.

When I called Loki, he actually asked me back.

[A black stick? What’s that?]

“You know, the stuff you gave me during your Aurelia days. When I first awakened.”

[Yeah, I gave you the walkthrough and the letter.]

“There was also an orb and a black stick included?”

[Hmm. Doesn’t ring a bell. Maybe because I was using clones a lot during that time?]

“Really? You don’t know? This thing’s a growth-type weapon. It’s SS-rank now.”

[Growth-type? Damn. If I’d known that, there’s no way I’d have given it to you!]

Loki sounded genuinely baffled.

Fair enough.

“Then who gave it to me?”

[How should I know? But if that’s a rare growth-type sword, and that orb added a new system feature…]

“This one’s the Recycling Window. Not very useful.”

Originally, it was for collecting impurities filtered during trait absorption.

I’ve seen it spit out some skills, but they were all B-rank at best.

And B-rank skills aren’t that useful once you’ve got divine or soul-based abilities.

[A whole new tab in the system, and you say it’s not useful? Man, your life—or afterlife—is just blessed.]

Loki shook his head, waving me off.

[Anyway, I only sent you two items. You figure out the rest. I’ve got work to do.]

“Wait—hey, I’ve got news from Kalvine.”

[Ah, right. You and your treasure hoards—got distracted. So? How’d it go?]

When I told him what happened with Artemis, Loki’s face turned serious.

[Green gem… shadowy soul form, huh?]

“It ran away when Artemis’ toes started to show.”

[Dealing with Zeus is already a pain, and now this shows up? Still… I think we’re getting a clearer picture of his ally.]

“Ally?”

[Yeah. Zeus sealed away all the gods on Earth except for us in Asgard. I’ve always wondered where he got the power to do that. There’s no way Zeus could’ve done it alone. So I figured it was the work of the Lord of Chaos, the ‘Devil with the Smiling Face’, who was in league with Zeus…]

But even that theory left too many unanswered questions.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Even if it was the Devil with the Smiling Face, he’s on the same tier as the other deities. Sealing all of Earth’s many gods at once?

There was no way the Earth deities would’ve gone down so easily just from his power alone.

[I'll look into it. Thanks for the useful intel.]

With that, Loki ended the transmission.

In the end, they still couldn’t figure out the origin of the Soul Sword.

Worse, it turned out that even the black orb hadn’t been given by him, deepening the mystery.

Ha… then who did give it to me?

I tried thinking it through, but I couldn’t even begin to guess.

“Sigh. I’ll think about that later…”

My thoughts drifted to the Recycle Window.

If the Soul Sword came with it, maybe it actually had immense value?

Hmm.

So far, it’s been filled with mostly useless skills…

But since I just wiped out Artemis’s physical form, maybe something worthwhile got added?

“Recycle Window.”

When I opened the Recycle Window, the black orb was enlarged and appeared semi-transparent.

Inside, all kinds of skills were stored.

“The skills are still garbage though.”

Just a parade of B-rank stuff.

And not even anything unique—mostly standard magic spells.

Looking at the most recent ones…

[Nymph’s “Water Bomb”]

[Nymph’s “Fire Wing”]

[Corrupted Nymph’s “Forced Heat”]

Guess it’s because I slaughtered a bunch of nymphs recently?

All the skills were from them.

I looked for any skills from Artemis’s body since I’d massacred it too, but didn’t see any.

Maybe that wasn’t enough to generate skills?

Makes sense… I didn’t get any when I killed the SS-rank goddess Skuld either.

Though, back then, the black orb had way more empty space—now it’s about 80% full of this and that kind of trash.

Most of the defined skills are B-rank, or at best one-time use A-rank skills.

Man, even now, it’s still not worth much.

Nothing I’d actually want to learn.

“Hm. Since it’s all junk anyway, maybe I should try fusing it?”

Ever since I became a Soul Fusionist, I’d never actually tried Soul Fusion or Soul Disassembly.

Mainly because it kept telling me that I couldn’t exceed the rank of my Soul Fusionist class anyway.

I’m currently a B-rank Soul Fusionist, and B-rank skills or items are useless to me—so I never bothered.

“Soul Fusion.”

Two glowing white circles appeared in front of me.

The left one was labeled “Main Body.”

The right one said “Fusion Target.”

“Let’s just toss stuff in.”

I dropped in “Water Bomb” and “Fire Wing” from earlier.

Water and fire… not exactly a great combo, but they’re just B-ranks, so I figured why not experiment?

[Attempting Soul Fusion……]

[Soul Fusion failed. The skills have disappeared.]

Whoa.

Skills can vanish too?

Damn.

Good thing I tested it first.

I could’ve cried blood if I tried fusing my S-ranks and this happened.

[Absorbing trace of failure. You gained SP and EXP.]

That message definitely caught my eye.

SP and EXP?

I checked my status.

My SP still sat at 310 million, unchanged—but my EXP had gone up by 3% from 197.

Huh.

That’s actually a decent amount.

“Wait… does Soul Disassembly give EXP too?”

My eyes landed on the Corrupted Nymph’s “Forced Heat” skill.

Hmm…

Is this one useful…?

Just in case, I checked the skill description.

[Corrupted Nymph’s Forced Heat LV.1]

[A skill gained through a nymph’s corruption and seduction of countless males. Forces the target into a state of heat. Only activates on males.]

Sigh… males only…

“Soul Disassembly.”

This time, only one white circle appeared.

Without hesitation, I shoved the Forced Heat skill into it.

[Disassembling soul……]

[Skill Ddsassembled. You obtained ‘B-rank Skill Shard’ x1, along with SP and EXP.]

Nice.

So Soul Disassembly gives EXP too.

I checked how much—it had increased by 1%.

Assuming it always gives 1%… 100 B-rank skills would mean 1 level up.

I looked back at the Recycle Window.

It was filled with tons of skills, but I wasn’t sure if there were 300.

“If it’s not enough, I’ll just buy more. Whatever.”

There’s a random box in the SP shop.

I never bought it before since the efficiency was so bad, but now I’m earning a hundred million a day, so spending some doesn’t even make a dent.

Even if I burn some SP, upgrading quickly is more important.

“Let’s go. Disassemble.”

Fusion might not give EXP if it succeeds, so I decided to stick to disassembly.

I pulled skills out of the Recycle Window and fed them into the Soul Disassemble window.

And so began the grind.

The skills in the Recycle Window vanished rapidly, and I hit level 199.

A B~D-rank random box cost 10,000 SP.

‘Not that bad.’

I thought, and ordered 100 of them.

And the results?

“Wow. Just one?”

1%.

Unreal.

These bastards are out of their minds.

At this rate, to get 100 B-rank skills, I’d need to spend 100 million SP…

They say many drops make an ocean, but this level of SP drain is just absurd…

“Sigh… well, I earn that much in a day.”

I considered combining the B-rank Skill Shards for another fusion attempt, but decided to just keep buying boxes.

Right now, I’m only getting B-rank skills, but once I reach A-rank Soul Fusionist, fusing might start giving A-rank skills too.

100 million seems pricey, but I can earn it overnight.

No need to be stingy… just spend it!

And with that, I burned through 250 million SP.

[You have reached Level 200.]

[‘Soul Fusionist’ has advanced to A-rank.]

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]