Chapter 174 – God Has Spoken (2)

The worship service ended quickly due to the cardinal’s sudden illness.

“He doesn’t notice divine power but feels killing intent with incredible precision.”

Sun-woo, who had merely sent killing intent to make it end faster, felt a bit sorry seeing the cardinal looking as if he had caught malaria.

“Shouldn’t a cardinal be able to feel divine power? He seems more like a martial artist type.”

At Sun-woo’s question, Van Shingwan made a troubled expression.

“Not being able to feel divine power doesn’t mean one can’t become a servant of the gods. If one has sincere faith, the goddess takes care of them. Moreover, our goddess’s divine power is extremely difficult for men to sense.”

At Van Shingwan’s words, Sun-woo realized he had thought wrong.

Sun-woo also absolutely didn’t want to see dozens of men acting cute and dancing around.

“And I’m not sure if he’s a martial artist type, but Cardinal Rohansson is an excellent preacher.”

That may be an excellent preacher to believers who follow the goddess, but to Sun-woo, he was just an old man droning on with boring stories.

After the service ended, the group was guided to the bishop’s office on the upper floor of the chapel.

This Great Chapel was the tallest building in the city except for the royal palace.

Perhaps because of that, the entire capital of the Holy Kingdom could be seen from outside the bishop’s office.

The office was decorated quite luxuriously and beautifully. It looked like a queen’s or princess’s room from movies.

Sun-woo, who had imagined a typical clergy room with bookshelves and a hard wooden desk, couldn’t help but experience culture shock.

“You don’t need to look with those eyes. This room is entirely the goddess’s taste anyway.”

A dazzlingly beautiful woman entered the room.

The owner of this room, the archbishop of the Holy Kingdom.

It was Archbishop Aridel.

The woman whose age couldn’t be gauged looked very neat, unlike her room.

“The location of this room is also the goddess’s preference for wanting to look down on the entire capital, and the room’s atmosphere is what the goddess likes. My actual taste is more on the simple side.”

Sun-woo looked at the three people in the room in turn.

Van Shingwan, Yeonhwa, and even the archbishop grumbling about the god.

It was certain that there wasn’t a single normal person among those belonging to gods!

“The gods, including the goddess, have kept their distance from summoners until now. There have been almost no instances of making their own children become summoners.”

The bishop briefly glanced at Van Shingwan.

“This is also the first time I’ve directly met with a summoner during my time as bishop.”

According to Van Shingwan, she was a woman who had served as bishop for over 30 years. A woman whose youthful beauty was maintained by divine power.

She looked at Sun-woo with a regretful expression.

“I have many questions and much to talk about, but the goddess is rushing me.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her atmosphere changed.

The woman with a beautiful but neat feeling transformed into a woman simultaneously exuding various feelings—glamorous yet seductive, seemingly pure.

Goddess Frig had possessed her body.

‘So is this the real one?’

When she entered Van Shingwan’s body, the goddess had been frightening, but when she properly possessed a suitable body, she radiated beauty unseen in this world.

If Sun-woo hadn’t transcended levels and awakened to the transcendent level, he might be prostrating and kissing her feet right now.

The goddess possessing the bishop’s body stared intently at Sun-woo, then clicked her tongue with a sulky expression.

“Really boring. I went to all the trouble of setting the mood and appearing. Can’t you greet me more warmly?”

“Who’s the one who kept playing pranks from the chapel?”

“Oh? You noticed? I thought you didn’t know since you stayed still. Your intuition is tremendously high. Want to become my priest?”

“No! Absolutely. Not!”

Sun-woo emphasized by breaking it into words.

Fortunately, the goddess didn’t seem insistent.

“Well, our bishop seems unhappy about constantly having her body taken. And since the cute summoner is indifferent, I guess we should talk business.”

Finally, they were getting to the main point.

“Right now the system—what do you guys call it? Summoner? Anyway, the entity the summoners created has stopped growing, right? And a quest appeared telling you to receive authentication from the gods.”

Sun-woo nodded. Since she was the first god to authenticate him (or was it the second?), it was natural she knew.

“But the number you need to get authenticated isn’t small, right? So I called you to help.”

She moved toward the terrace and looked at the capital of the Holy Kingdom where low, beautiful buildings spread into the distance.

“Height restrictions are the best after all. How nice to look at. Setting up a king with moderate power lust was the right answer.”

Van Shingwan coughed with a horrified expression after hearing her muttering.

“Van. You’ve lost your cute taste too, so you’re no fun anymore.”

The goddess glanced sideways at Van Shingwan, then returned to the original story.

“The summoner bastards didn’t explain at all why such a quest is necessary, right? Because that’s the kind of bastards they are. Then should I explain that first?”

According to the goddess’s story, the entity given by the summoners—the body and soul transformed into a summoner—had limits.

Though changed from before and able to grow quickly through imagination up to a certain level, those limits clearly existed.

“Growth without borrowing the summoner’s power has no separate restrictions, and there have been almost no people who grew to the limit, but when you reach the limit, consent is needed to advance to the next stage.”

“Is that the gods’ consent?”

At Sun-woo’s words, the goddess nodded.

“Of course the gods’ consent is needed. Beyond that limit isn’t the human realm but the divine realm. Should I call it divinity? And I’ve permitted you to become one of us.”

At her words, Sun-woo frowned. He had no desire to become a god.

“Don’t make that face. Even if it’s divinity, before you shed your physical body, there’s not much difference from those beside you. The restrictions just disappear. Later, later, after honing your divinity and shedding your physical body, that’s when the moment of decision comes again.”

Sun-woo turned to Yeonhwa for confirmation.

Yeonhwa, who had been admiring the objects in the room, nodded when Sun-woo turned around.

“Taoist masters all cultivate to become immortals too. Well, instead of receiving consent, there’s also the method of surpassing the transcendent level again and again, creating yang spirit (養神) in the body and becoming a god on your own…”

At Sun-woo checking with Yeonhwa, the goddess made a sulky expression.

“Anyway, getting permission from the gods one by one is difficult work, and the number of remaining gods isn’t that many. For that reason, when you reach the limit, you either give up further growth or try to use loopholes.”

The goddess continued speaking.

“However, methods still remain. In this world, there are still places where remnants of ancient forgotten gods remain. Beings that are losing their divine abilities and dying because there are no worshippers, but the rights themselves still remain.”

“You don’t mean the Isle of Destruction, do you?”

At the goddess’s words, Van Shingwan interjected. He seemed so surprised that he didn’t even realize he had interrupted the goddess.

“Well, it’s also called the Isle of Destruction. In reality, it’s the last sanctuary of the ancient empire. The place of exile for gods created by the Magic Empire.”

These were names that seemed very bad for one’s divine image. Sun-woo began to consider giving up the mission.

“That’s a place no one can enter. A place where you eternally circle around, go mad and self-harm, get struck and burned to death by thunder and lightning, monsters appear and swallow ships, and all curses in the world appear to block entry, isn’t it?”

“It’s fine if I permit it.”

“What?”

“That’s a barrier created by us gods. Naturally, we can undo it.”

Van Shingwan looked at the goddess with an absurdly bewildered expression, however impudent.

“Well, there are various reasons like preventing past disasters, so that’s why…”

The goddess’s expression as she made excuses in passing contained a slightly sad feeling.

“But why are you letting us in now?”

Ignoring the goddess’s mood, Sun-woo asked the content he needed now.

“I told you. To help you.”

Though she naturally said it was for Sun-woo’s sake, he wasn’t one to be swayed by such words.

“I’d like you to tell me the rest of the story. If there’s no proper explanation, I’ll give up the mission.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the goddess frowned, but Sun-woo didn’t budge.

After staring at Sun-woo for a moment, Goddess Frig let out a small sigh.

“Well, it’s a story I’d tell you anyway once you do it… The expansion of demonic energy has become a situation where the existing gods find it difficult to block. Until now, we’ve blocked the demonic energy coming from the demon realm with divine power, and cleaned up the demonic energy we couldn’t block with the help of humans and the system (summoners), but now it’s at the limit.”

The goddess spread her hands to the side.

“The dam is collapsing.”

So they needed to summon back the ancient gods they had blocked to monopolize the world.

“But we blocked it for so long that we don’t really know what’s become of the inside. It’s the point where we need to send some humans to check, and you appeared at just the right time.”

As expected, it was a shabby story.

“So basically, we’re a reconnaissance team?”

“Yep, that’s right. Since you’re summoners of the summoners, those gods won’t have much aversion to you either, so it’s perfect for investigating.”

Scales moved back and forth in Sun-woo’s mind.

“Well, even without you, we would have called summoners with a forced mission anyway. Since I like you, I’m calling you separately and explaining, so you should be grateful.”

If the mission had been assigned without him knowing, as she said, he would have definitely accepted it readily. In that sense, it was help.

“And I’ll definitely compensate you.”

It was the moment her words ended.

[You have received authentication from Bismile, God of Mercenaries. Quest is in progress.]

[3/100]

[You have received authentication from the Fairy God. Quest is in progress.]

[4/100]

[You have received authentication from the Goblin God. Quest is in progress.]

[5/100]

[…]

[…]

The summoner’s voice continued to reach Sun-woo’s ears.

In an instant, 20 authentications filled up.

“There, isn’t that a pretty good down payment? If you return safely, I’ll give you a good reward besides the summoner’s reward.”

The down payment was certainly very satisfactory. Plus, a reward guaranteed by a god…

Sun-woo ultimately kneeled before greed.

***

Sun-woo, Van Shingwan, and Yeonhwa.

The three of them said farewell to the archbishop, then used a spatial movement formation to travel to the southern coastal city of Natalie.

In the city of Natalie, full of beautiful scenery and fresh sea breezes, people they had known before were waiting for them.

Spirit master Alda, knight Daniel, and former hero Prince Gristin.

They had been summoned here by summoner missions.

“Ah, I know the route to that place. It’s not far from the island where I lived.”

“Isn’t this dangerous? We should investigate, but it doesn’t look easy.”

“Damn, an adventure. A dangerous adventure at that. My blood is boiling.”

Alda seemed to have been summoned as a guide, Daniel as a knight with adventurer origins, and the prince seemed to have been chosen as a former hero.

Sun-woo checked up to Van Shingwan and Yeonhwa and sighed.

This was completely an adventurer party departing for an unknown island.