Chapter 1450
[Pagma’s Rest]
[Difficulty: Final Cla.s.s quest.
A traitor who betrayed a friend and dug up the remains of the former generation legends, he ended up signing a contract with a great demon.
Those who have heard of pieces of Pagma’s life don’t know that he is a hero. Even those who know that he saved humanity often disparage his achievements or raise the conspiracy theory that he did it for other purposes because he signed a contract with Baal. The world recognizes Pagma as just the blacksmith Pagma.
After inheriting Pagma’s skills, you are the only witness who understands Pagma’s life and respects his achievements.
Free the pitiful soul who is suffering in h.e.l.l.
Quest Clear Rewards: Open Pagma’s Sword Dances, Splendor and Chop. All sword dances can be fused without restriction except for Sky.
Quest Time Limit: None]
The contents of the final cla.s.s quest instilled some sentimental feelings in Grid.
Pagma, who betrayed his own people and freed the trapped half-G.o.d. Pagma, who stabbed his only friend in the back. Pagma, who enticed the innocent doppelganger into the forest. Pagma, who conspired with the great demon Baal to dig up the remains of the former generation legends.
The Pagma who appeared in various quests and episodes clearly had a personality flaw. However, it was sentimentality that was maximized when the focus was placed on all of Pagma’s ‘actions.’
Pagma, who was courageous and determined to save the caged Blue Tiger. Pagma, who cried sadly after killing Braham. Pagma, who had no choice but to use the purity of the doppelganger to stop the war. Pagma, who colluded with Baal to fight against the demons and G.o.ds...
From a certain point, Grid learned about Pagma’s inner thoughts and feelings behind his choices. After that, Grid couldn’t blame Pagma. Of course, this wasn’t enough to persuade anyone who hated or held a grudge against Pagma. Still, Grid didn’t deny that Pagma was a hero.
A man who fought for humanity alone, who saved humanity at the expense of his soul but was never happy. It was as the system expressed. He was a very pitiful hero.
“...Are they f.u.c.king crazy?”
Grid was sentimental for a while before abruptly coming to his senses. He couldn’t help swearing.
Free Pagma’s soul? A soul held by Baal? The difficulty was too high for a cla.s.s quest. At this point, he had to suspect that the S.A Group hated Pagma’s Successor.
It was natural for him to doubt it. The reason Grid was strong wasn’t because he was Pagma’s Successor. He was constantly building up his support with Braham, Piaro, Mercedes, the Saharan Empire, the Tower of Wisdom, the East Continent, etcetera, he acc.u.mulated all types of powers in the Rune of Gluttony, and he developed transcendence and divinity.
Grid was stronger due to his individual effort and luck rather than his cla.s.s of Pagma’s Successor. He was certain that his current self was at least several times stronger than the ultimate Pagma’s Successor designed by the S.A Group. It was by at least a dozen times.
Grid even had the power of the Overgeared Kingdom and the Overgeared Guild. It was unreasonable to simply define Grid as Pagma’s Successor. Yet even for such a Grid, the difficulty of the final cla.s.s quest was like a star in the sky. He had no choice but to swear.
‘It is a quest I would never be able to clear if I was a normal Pagma"s Successor. What type of quest did they put out as the cla.s.s quest?’
To borrow a bit, no, to borrow a lot of Huroi’s words, he had to doubt their conscience.
“...Well, it’s fine.”
Unexpectedly, Grid calmed his mind. He recalled that the cla.s.s quests had high difficulties in the first place. It took him as long as 10 years to raise his Tailoring skill to the craftsman level. It was better to think that it would take 20-30 years to complete the final cla.s.s quest. It wasn’t a matter to waste his mentality on right now.
‘The rewards are so good that I couldn’t help being irritated. Let’s leave it alone for the time being.’
Baal was a target to be defeated anyway. It was a quest that would be reached naturally sooner or later. Grid’s heart had rapidly deepened since meeting Agnus and he was able to easily control his mind.
‘This is the really regrettable thing.’
Grid reexamined in detail the information of Overgeared G.o.d Grid’s Techniques. It was a technique that fused his blacksmithing and tailoring skills. It was said that anything related to ‘production’ had a certain level of effectiveness. It wasn’t just limited to these two techniques. It was good. It was so good that it was natural for the system to say it was complete.
There were just a few things to feel regretful about. First, Open Potential didn’t apply. This meant the effect of calibrating the minimum rating of items produced to unique (unless it was a growth type) and boosting the item’s stats by 40% was no longer applied.
Second, there was no function to grant egos. Instead, he had to consume his Granting an Ego skill... Grid’s nature meant he was reluctant to lock up other people’s egos in items.
‘I feel proud that Granting an Ego gives life to items, but I am reluctant to do it.’
Granting an Ego was the ability to attach the souls of beings like Iyarugt to an item. The process was as followed:
1. In order to use Granting an Ego, Grid and the target ego must know each other.
2. Granting an Ego only worked when the target ego responded to Grid’s call.
3. No matter what form the ego existed in, it would forcibly belong to the item the moment it responded to the call.
It was better if he could kill a monster and absorb the monster’s ego so it could be used without any burden. However, this d.a.m.n Granting an Ego targeted beings that Grid knew (who was close enough to respond when called) and locked them in an item. It was an action that made him doubt the person’s character.
‘Um... I don’t think it is too bad since the limit on the number of times is gone...’
There was a rule that if the item that the ego belonged to was destroyed, the target ego would return to its original place. He could use this rule to destroy the item after things were over, returning the soul to their original place and reducing the burden on himself. A typical method was the use of the Item Combination skill. If he gave an ego to the combined item, the ego would be released as soon as the combination was over.
Of course, it was hard to use Item Combination every time, but... ‘Wait, perhaps?’
Grid suddenly came up with a hypothesis. He took out the Enlightenment Sword and tried out Granting an Ego. The target was h.e.l.l Gao. The soul of the 9th Great Demon who had lost his body and took over the bodies of demonic creatures.
[h.e.l.l Gao’s soul has detected your calling. He was intrigued for a moment, but snorted and didn’t respond.]
“This works?”
In order to use Granting an Ego, Grid and the target ego must know each other. There was no need to like each other. Iyarugt had little affinity with Grid during the time of the showdown with Sword Duke Limit, yet he responded to Granting an Ego.
[h.e.l.l Gao’s soul has detected your calling. He found it ridiculous, so he snorted and didn’t respond.]
“Hoh...” It was a skill that could be used for ill-fated relations.h.i.+ps.
[h.e.l.l Gao’s soul has detected your calling. He is expressing his anger and telling you to do it in moderation.]
‘If I keep doing this, won’t he be annoyed enough to respond at least once?’—Even if it was just to curse him. He didn’t know that his ego would be taken away the moment he responded.
‘...Gasp? Can I call Pagma’s soul?’
Did he actually come up with such a genius idea? The excited Grid carefully tried it out. Unfortunately, it failed. Pagma’s soul had lost its intellect so there was a notification window that he couldn’t hear Grid’s call.
“It can’t happen.”
If it could be used in this way, Granting an Ego would be too fraudulent. The balance-obsessed S.A Group wouldn’t allow such a loophole. Sure enough, it wasn’t possible... Grid continued to use Granting an Ego while thinking. The target was naturally h.e.l.l Gao. There was a cooldown time in exchange for the number of uses disappearing, but this place was a mountain and he had Divinity. It was no problem to use it several times in a row.
‘In any case, the conclusion is that it is good.’
Overgeared G.o.d Grid’s Techniques—he had the penalty of not being able to use Open Potential on it because it was a completed skill, but this was a reasonable balance adjustment. He could make items like a factory (thanks to the dexterity coefficient, the automatic production speed was nearly twice as fast as before), it was possible to aim at the myth rating, and he could grant magic and an ego. There was also an advantage when attaching attributes.
Above all, the biggest evolution was being able to produce all types of items. Grid believed it was possible to devise a way to break through the limits of item performance that arose due to the inherent limitations of the materials. For example, he could introduce the artifact creation technique when making a sword.
‘I can break through the limits with magic.’
It was possible. The items he would create in the future would be much more powerful than the ones he previously made. The Overgeared G.o.d Grid’s Techniques was the ultimate skill.
“Let’s go back,” Grid declared as he stood up. The Overgeared Skeletons hurriedly put out the fire and tidied up the surroundings. Randy was restoring his breathing. As Pagma’s Sword Dance evolved into Grid’s Sword Dance, he naturally became more powerful and he expressed a sense of mission to handle things without Grid having to step forward.
Noe was as easygoing as always. He slowly rose to the sky and spread out his jelly-like pink soles to create lightning. The surrounding trees burned and opened up a path for Grid to walk.
“I’m going to fly anyway. Why are you creating a fire?”
“It was cool, nyang...”
“What cool nonsense? Braham has destroyed dozens of mountains and I’m afraid the price of timber will rise further.”
“......”
Tsk tsk. Grid clicked his tongue and scolded while Noe followed him silently.
How long had they spent together? Grid’s words alone were good enough for Noe. It was the same for Randy and the Overgeared Skeletons. Ah, except for Overgeared Corn.
***
“Based on the remaining magic power in the core, I can guess what Galgunos’ level was... how did you kill him?”
“Sister Jishuka’s arrows...”
After stopping by the smithy to test out his skills, Grid returned to the castle and witnessed a rather unexpected combination. They were Braham, Jishuka, and Euphemina. It was the first time Grid had seen the three people together and the atmosphere was quite good. Braham’s eyes, which were usually as cold as ice, showed a bit of warmth and a favorable att.i.tude.
It was probably because Euphemina had inherited Mumud’s power. Braham had a sense of debt toward Mumud. Perhaps this was why he was favorable to Euphemina. Jishuka, well... anyone would like her as long as they were a person. It wasn’t because she was so pretty. She had a clear sense of self, knew how to distinguish between public and private, and had a cheerful energy, so she spread positive energy to people. Even Braham wasn’t apathetic toward her.
“What are the three of you doing?”
Grid sneaked in between the three people who were having a heated conversation. He checked Jishuka’s expression and she greeted him with a surprisingly bright expression, “It has been a while~”
It was a very casual att.i.tude unlike his worries. The past Grid would’ve been fl.u.s.tered and felt at loss for words. However, Grid was in the process of expanding the world of his mind. The Mind was a different concept that resembled the spirit. Grid could smile without losing his composure in front of Jishuka.
“Yes, it’s been almost four months. I missed you because I haven’t seen you in so long.”
“Eh?”
Rather, it was Jishuka who felt fl.u.s.tered. Her eyes, which were normally like a cat’s, became round and her face was red like a tomato. Grid had already turned his attention to Euphemina and he didn’t see her reaction.
“I’ve been constantly hearing about your active performance?”
Euphemina had changed to Mumud’s Successor and was now a monster with the t.i.tle of ‘conditional strongest.’ She was the first to gain an epic cla.s.s and she revealed the existence of Siren and Mumud alone. Her achievements since gaining Mumud’s power were great compared to Grid before he wrote the epics. Euphemina smiled. “It is thanks to the consideration and support of the guild.”
Time made people mature. He could feel kindness from the once playful smile of Euphemina.
Grid patted her on the shoulder and brought up the reason he was here to Braham, who was looking at him with dissatisfaction for some reason.
“Teach me some magic.”
Before coming to the castle, Grid had stopped by the smithy and experimented.
Overgeared G.o.d Grid’s Techniques allowed him to attach magic to ‘items in production.’ There was a 100% chance of success when granting one magic. The more magic that was granted, the higher the chances of failure. Grid wanted to learn magic that was as powerful as possible. It was completely new magic that didn’t overlap with the magic attached to the sword dances.
According to Braham, Grid’s body had ‘sword energy circulating in every vein where magic has to circulate’ and it wasn’t suitable for learning magic. Still, this didn’t mean he couldn’t learn magic at all. Didn’t he actually learn Decoy? He had grown and gained a lot of levels since then. So why not learn new magic?
Braham stared at Grid’s body and nodded. "I"ll do so. It just so happens that there is good magic you can learn.”