Chapter 159

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 159: Soul Fusionist A-Rank (2)

“Ha. I’m never doing a draw again.”

I thought the probability of getting a B-rank was 1% since I got one out of 100 boxes—but nope, that wasn’t it.

I was opening box after box and nothing came out.

I nearly had a heart attack.

Seriously, random boxes are not something to mess with.

I’ve got 60 million SP left.

[Name - Kim Jiho

Class - Soul Fusionist

Level - 200

Guardian Deity -

Title - Earth’s Number One

Strength - Supreme

Agility - Supreme

Magic - Supreme

Origin - Unavailable

SP - 60 million (Shared)]

All the attributes had automatically changed to the highest rank.

Well… since soul power is the most important stat right now, I wasn’t really paying attention to Strength, Agility, or Magic.

The thing I was most interested in was the condition for upgrading to S-rank.

I needed to reach S-rank as a Soul Fusionist to even have the chance to become an SS-rank Soul God.

“Let’s see… The conditions to upgrade to S-rank are…”

[Conditions for class ‘Soul Fusionist’ to reach S-rank have been generated.]

All stats at Supreme

Obtain the qualification of divinity

Form an S-rank through soul fusion

Disassemble 100 A-rank or higher souls

Ugh… those are some annoying requirements.

I’d rather go hunt gods again.

Conditions 1 and 2 were already cleared—they had checkmarks next to them.

So I guess I don’t need to get divinity again this time.

Well, I am aiming to become a Soul God anyway.

But condition 3 was the problem.

Form an S-rank?

I recalled the message I got when I leveled up my Soul Fusionist class.

[Soul Fusion skill has reached level 20. Fusion synergy increases, and now skills and items can also be fused. Skills and items cannot exceed the grade of the Soul Fusionist.]

Right.

It clearly said skills and items can’t surpass my current grade.

And now I’m A-rank, so I can only get A-rank stuff at most.

I checked the skill description again to see if anything changed—nope, still the same.

So, only A-rank skills and items…

“Ah…?”

Wait, what if it’s not about skills or items?

What if I fuse with an A-rank Hunter’s soul?

Could I end up with an S-rank?

I mean, it’s a system-generated quest.

They wouldn’t give me something impossible, right?

“Hm. I’ll have to experiment with that later…”

Then I looked at the 4th condition: 100 disassemblies of A-rank souls.

That probably includes items, skills, and soul entities, right?

That’s a problem too.

Even B-ranks were rare—how am I supposed to get A-ranks?

But then again, if it's not limited to skills and items, maybe it’s doable.

It just said “A-rank or higher,” so if I go to Kalvine and catch some Corrupted Nymphs and disassemble them, maybe that counts?

Could be worth a shot.

“Haah. They should’ve just given me an easy god-slaying quest instead.”

Damn system—never lets anyone take the easy path.

I flopped onto my bed and looked at the aftermath of opening 25,000 boxes.

First, inventory check.

All the B-rank items were long gone, and now I had mountains of C- and D-rank items.

I’d disassembled some of them at first, but the system only gave me ‘Skill Fragments’ and SP, so I skipped the rest.

I was more focused on getting experience points.

“Just trash everywhere.”

Although, if I took this trash back to Earth, I could sell it for a good price.

Since Earth’s current Hunter level maxes out at B-rank, and most people are using C- and D-rank gear.

But I can make money however I want now, so why bother selling items?

[Low-Grade Elixir]

[C-rank]

[Heals physical injuries and reverses aging.]

Rich folks would love stuff like this.

But selling it is more trouble than it’s worth.

I’ll just grind it all down.

Though before that…

“Let’s level up the skills.”

Soul Fusionist skills cost SP equal to Skill Level * 1 million SP.

With 60 million SP, I could get both key skills to level 30.

[‘Soul Fusion’ skill has reached level 30.]

[‘Soul Disassembly’ skill has reached level 30.]

51 million SP drained instantly.

Now I had less than 10 million left.

Better not use any more for now.

“Soul Disassembly.”

I opened the Disassembly tab and started stuffing in items and skills.

One by one.

What a grind.

Over 20,000 skills and items.

As I dumped them into the Soul Disassembly bin, I started to wonder what I was doing with my life.

“Can’t this be automated?”

I wished my hand could auto-click and transfer everything from my inventory.

Tried issuing a divine command to the system:

[User’s rank is too low. Unable to interfere with system.]

Figures.

The system’s as merciless as ever.

So I had to do everything manually?

I lay on the bed and used both hands—and even my tentacles—to disassemble everything.

“Wow. The sun’s up.”

I started this at night, and by the time I finished, the sun was high in the sky.

I gained 100 million SP, totaling 110 million.

From decomposing 24,900 items and skills, I got about 10 million SP.

I spent 250 million to get them and got 10 million back.

That’s 4% return.

“Yep. Gambling is not it.”

Random boxes really aren’t the way.

“Well, anyway…”

630 C-rank skill fragments.

1,870 C-rank item fragments.

What do I do with these?

“Maybe try fusing them?”

I opened the Fusion tab and tossed in the fragments.

[Skill fragments must be input in sets of 10 to fuse. For fusion into a higher rank, input in sets of 100.]

Hmm…

So 10 gives the same rank (C), and 100 gives the next rank (B)?

Well, I don’t need C-ranks, so this works.

I bundled them in sets of 100 and started fusing.

[You’ve obtained the skill ‘Shadow Echo.’]

[You’ve obtained the skill ‘Giant’s Strength.’]

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Ended up with 6 B-rank skills.

Of course, for someone like me who operates a soul body, these skills are useless.

All just junk to dispose of...

Might as well use up all the item fragments too.

Out of the remaining 1,270 fragments, I used 1,200, which gave me 6 B-grade items.

Spent 250 million and in the end, this is all I’ve got, huh.

Haa... hahaha.

After upgrading like this, a terrifying thought crossed my mind.

“Don’t tell me... do I need to collect 100 fragments for A-grade too?”

So that’s why the condition was “Disassemble 100 A-grade or higher souls”...

Are they expecting me to collect fragments through soul disassembly to make an S-grade?

Use an A-grade Awakener as the fusion base instead of skills or items, then collect 100 fragments as the offering.

In theory, that could produce an S-grade.

“Wow, but 100 A-grades is kind of insane.”

Where the heck am I supposed to get 100 A-grades?

I was rolling around on my bed, feeling overwhelmed, when a message came in from a follower.

[Jiho-nim. We've selected a total of 50 Apostle candidates so far… What would you like to do?]

It was a message from Kang Shia.

I had told her to narrow it down to the elite, and looks like she already picked 50.

Honestly, I didn’t need human hunters that badly anymore.

Not long ago, I was struggling to recruit even a few C-grade hunters, but now that I have apostles and lower gods from each faction acting like mercenaries, my SP income cap is maxed out and the roster’s looking pretty flashy.

Still, my human forces are too weak right now, so I’ll give positions to about 100 of them to raise them up.

[Good. Then fill out the rest and bring them all at once.]

[Understood.]

In the past, I was even considering taking in D-grades if necessary.

Now it feels like I’ve gone from a subordinate to a boss.

Not bad.

All thanks to the Apostle gods...

“Ah, wait a sec.”

Right.

The Apostle gods!

I opened the Apostle panel.

There are 60 gods recovering their names.

None of them have names yet.

S-grade skills might be too much, but couldn’t I get A-grade skills or items from them?

I sent a message to the nameless god with the highest SP among them.

No.46, listed as a nameless god.

The numbers make it hard to tell who’s a dispatched god and who’s an Apostle.

[Are you available to talk right now?]

[Of course, Soul God.]

[What was your old name, by any chance?]

[Guan Yu.]

Ah.

So 46 is Guan Yu.

Someone like Guan Yu should recover his power quickly...

Though, it’s only been a day since the expedition to Kalvine, so I guess he hasn’t regained enough SP to reclaim his name yet.

[How much value would an A-grade skill or item hold for a lower god?]

[Do you need one, Soul God? If so, I shall offer one immediately.]

[No, I should pay with SP. I can’t just rob gods who haven’t even recovered their divine names yet.]

[Soul God. This is not robbery. For an Apostle to offer something to their god is only natural. Considering the value of this Soul Mediation SP you've granted us, even an S-grade would be a reasonable offering.]

So this Soul Mediation thing is that valuable, huh.

Still, I’m earning 100 million SP a day.

Doesn’t feel right to just take things for free.

In life, “free” usually comes with a hidden cost.

[But if we were to assign a value, how much would you say it’s worth? I’ll take any A-grade. Even trash skills or items are fine as long as they’re A-grade.]

[Under those conditions… hmm. You could probably get one for around 300,000 SP.]

300,000?

That’s cheap?

Wait a sec.

That’s way cheaper than opening those boxes.

I was spending a million SP each time just to get a B-grade skill or item…

Hah.

[That cheap?]

[Yes. That’s the going rate for ritual tools. Gods who’ve been forgotten by humanity often discard their ritual tools, since they’re no longer useful. Especially now, with everyone short on SP, you’ll find them selling at even lower prices.]

Ohh.

Ritual tools…

[Thanks. Do you have anything to sell, Guan Yu?]

[If you need something, Soul God, I will offer my Green Dragon Crescent Blade.]

[No, no. I’m asking if you have anything to sell.]

[…I currently have nothing of the sort.]

Guess his stuff is all high-grade.

I ended the call with Guan Yu.

After learning all this, everything moved quickly.

I contacted Loki and my father and asked if they had any junk A-grade items they could sell, and they sourced everything from the divine realms.

[You sure any A-grade is fine, even if it’s garbage?]

“Yeah. Just send it over.”

[There’s even a rock.]

“Hah. What kind of rock is A-grade... Whatever, just send it.”

I collected everything at 200,000 SP per item and spent a total of 20 million SP.

Wow, so cheap.

Ugh.

Should’ve just bought from the gods yesterday.

B-grades would've been even cheaper, right?

Suddenly that 250 million SP I blew yesterday feels painful.

“Whatever. That’s three days’ worth of earnings. Forget it. Just forget it.”

Forcing myself to forget, I dumped all those A-grade junk items into soul disassembly.

Each item left behind SP and fragments.

Surprisingly, they gave a lot of SP.

“This one gave 100,000. Oh, this one 300,000? Whoa, more than I paid for them?”

The SP amounts were random, but ranged from 10,000 to 400,000.

After disassembling all 100 A-grade items, I recovered 10 million SP.

So I spent 10 million SP to break down 100 A-grade items.

Wow... I really was an idiot yesterday.

Blinded by the urge to level up…

[You have fulfilled the condition: ‘Disassemble 100 A-grade or higher souls.’]

A message popped up right away.

Cleared what looked like a pretty tough mission in just one day.

Networking with the high-level divine realm folks really pays off.

So now only one condition remains.

Forming an S-grade through Soul Fusion.

I’ve already collected the 100 sacrifice materials.

But I’m unsure what to use as the upgrade base.

If A-grade skills or items don’t work, can I use an Apostle?

What about Diana?

But if the fusion fails, what happens?

Does it blow up?

That’s too risky...

[Master. Use me.]

Suddenly, the phoenix popped out of my forehead.

Unlike usual, it was in a small form.

About the size it was back when it looked like a chick.

“What are you saying? What if you disappear?”

[I am a phoenix. Even if I die, I resurrect.]

“Yeah, but that’s under normal conditions. This is soul fusion… It might be dangerous.”

[…I’m prepared for that. I’m useless to you now, aren’t I?]

“Why are you talking about usefulness?”

[You saw it too, didn’t you? How useless I was in the battle between gods.]

The phoenix’s words brought back memories of the fight with Ares.

When it exploded like a puff of smoke from my clenched fist.

True, it was helpless in a fight against a deity-class opponent...

But still, the risk is way too high.

[I don’t want to explode helplessly again. Yes. I want to become an S-grade. Please, let me do this.]

The phoenix’s eyes were burning, just like its nature.

A fierce gaze with not a hint of fear of death.

If I didn’t say yes, it looked ready to burn down my house.

“Alright. But let’s try to make it as safe as possible.”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]