When I asked for a theme park to be built, Mansur’s Oil Playground was completed.
For someone who was thinking of something like Seoul Grand Park or Everland, this was an astonishing development.
“Is Uncle Jezel rich?”
“Haha. There’s nothing more foolish than asking a dark merchant about wealth. A merchant’s riches grow in proportion to the size of their heart.”
“How is that possible? Does that mean all monks are rich since their hearts are huge?”
Is that really true?
Thinking of a monk who advocates for non-possession yet enjoys full ownership seems to confirm it.
“I do recall hearing that Myung So has quite a bit of assets. By the way, it seems he has returned to the Academy after a long break.”
“Wow! So the treatment is over!”
“Treatment?”
“Professor Destroyer had been struggling with life and death, and Myung So was taking care of him. We should go visit!”
Although Myung So has come to see me, I don’t remember ever going to find him myself. Given I owe him a debt from my time in Kanelle City, I should at least go to express my gratitude.
“Monk! How’s Professor Dito?”
“It’s been a while, Oknodie. Fortunately, the Destroyer has managed to pull through.”
“Wow!”
“However, his condition is not great. He has merely avoided the decrease in lifespan; even using most of the energy he has left, he struggles against the encroaching dark mana. It’s hard to assure that he has a long remaining lifespan.”
“No way… That’s not ‘wow’! Where is the professor? Bring him quickly!”
“I understand your concern for your master, but this is his will.”
Myung So pulled out a letter from his pocket with a solemn face and handed it to me.
━━━
Oknodie.
I’m sorry we couldn’t meet face to face, but I’m grateful for this opportunity to leave a final message.
First, let me explain my current state. Although I strive for recovery, no one knows my condition better than I do.
In my present state, I could transform into a demon that could cause a mana disaster from just one battle. I intend to seal myself and face death when I can still control my strength.
I cannot help but accept this.
I trust that you, having seen how many lives have been lost due to the actions of the revolutionary and Seonhwang, will respect my wishes.
To prolong life while placing more lives in danger does not suit the end of a hero.
I have decided to die as a hero rather than meet my end as a demon or a perpetrator of a mana disaster.
If you wish to remember your master as a hero, please respect my will.
━━━
“What is this…?”
“As you can see, it’s a will.”
“Why would Professor Dito leave a will?!”
The monk turned his gaze toward the letter.
“Please read the entire letter he left behind first. The story will come after that.”
Reluctantly, I turned the pages of the letter.
━━━
It seems you have not completed the lectures on Ni’alatotep and the Three Great Evils.
There is someone who can continue the lectures he didn’t finish.
Go to Level 5 of the Great Prison.
There, the warrior of the previous hero party, Ni’alatotep’s first companion, warrior [Alpha], is imprisoned.
He will tell you why one member of the Three Great Evils, [Man’s Representative], and Ni’alatotep’s journey as a hero came to an end.
Ishtar and Hestia.
If you think the other two comrades are also worthy to hear the story, bring them along.
But if you feel you are not sufficiently prepared, you must go alone.
Unlike me, Alpha is not very kind.
If you want to hear something from him, you must always pass the appropriate test.
━━━
Ugh. I wasn’t even curious about this sort of thing!
The previous heroes are randomly generated each time.
Yet, the retired former hero Destroyer always makes a consistent appearance.
Unlike him, the fate of the other party members in the hero party remains unknown.
The unknown is not always intriguing.
Rewards are uncertain, and the difficulty is high.
There are also pointless falling events and trap events that only bring pain if poked unnecessarily.
Digging into the dark of the previous hero party works mostly like that.
However, Professor Destroyer’s letter still remains.
I opened the next page of the letter.
━━━
Next, I will offer you some advice regarding the Foundation.
For a long time, I have joined forces with Professor Sadako to uncover the secrets of the Foundation.
And I have learned many secrets.
The butler of the Foundation is someone who has discarded their disguise to actively operate in the shadows after graduating from the status of a [Scholarship Student].
They take on roles such as nurturing the young lady and young master, leading local scholarship students, and performing aggressive commands such as assassination or combat.
The butler is among the top of those butlers.
It is certain that he is the same individual who taught you at the Foundation and felled the revolutionary with a single blow.
If you wish to escape the clutches of the Foundation, you must first defeat that man.
The butler’s duties also include ‘dealing with betrayers,’ and he will serve as the strongest ambusher dispatched from the Foundation to take you and Jonnas down.
The butler is said to have awakened a dual function of [Stepping].
I hope this information proves useful to you.
━━━
The information itself was needlessly useful.
Stepping.
It’s one of many basic functions like hiding or climbing.
And depending on how it’s used, it holds potential that far exceeds its original lousy functionality.
Those who primarily use stepping are beings that transcend humans.
A being with a ‘high’ total function score uses this function to step on ‘inferior’ beings from above.
With a low function score, one inevitably gets stepped on and receives a huge debuff from which escape is impossible—a truly nasty function enforcing this debuff.
However, comparing the Foundation’s butler to entities like [Divine Class of Twenty-Four] or other [Transcendent Beings] feels a bit off.
If he had that kind of power, wouldn’t the chairman of the Foundation have used him to dominate other great evils or subdue Seonhwang?
‘Just like how my [Automatic] function opened the hidden technique of eternal clone, the butler must also have hidden functions.’
The professor’s letter was finally reaching its last page.
━━━
I still possess some assets.
After finishing my two hero journeys, I invested most of my money and exchangeable assets into the Thief Guild.
That Thief Guild is my first asset, so starting today, you have earned the rank and status of the Thief Guild leader whom all thieves across the nation will revere.
The included badge will prove this.
Next, what I will give you are the items belonging to demons and demonic clans that even the Thief Guild could not dispose of due to the dark magic imbued within them.
This ominous power can neutralize evil forces when handed over to the temple, restoring the proper usage of magic tools, and it can also be used to enhance your contributions to faith or sacred magic.
However, as someone who was a friend of Ni’alatotep, who is at odds with the gods, I had no way to use these burdensome items.
The included map will show you the location of the dark warehouse where the dark materials are stored.
For a brief location name, I will tell you it’s [Monster Forest], the most dangerous and secret place among the Three Great Mineral Forests.
Finally, what I leave to you is not a treasure or status, but rather a burden.
Professor Bronze has conceived my child.
I hope you will assist as a [Guardian] in guiding the child of the hero I entrusted to the right path.
As someone who owes a debt to Professor Bronze, he will accept you as the guardian of his child.
Please cherish that child, which is like an old friend’s soul, and care for it as though it were my own!
━━━
I’ve always known my master had a penchant for death flags, but this is a serious matter—he’s shoved in flags that could make it seem like he could get struck by lightning and die at any moment.
*
Oknodie cried and pleaded.
“Waaah! Myung So, take me to where Professor Dito is quickly!”
“Even if you say that, you already know it’s too late. Fate comes and goes depending on its time. Do not try to grasp it like the flowing wind, but let it go.”
If you do that, you may be in pain at first, but soon, you will have the space in your heart to reflect on the other connections you should cherish in this current life.
This is probably what Destroyer hopes for Oknodie’s future.
By leaving behind the assets that need to be retrieved on their behalf, focusing on the enemies at hand, and preserving the relationships that must be cared for in the future, he prevents the stagnation and degradation of the soul.
He was a true master, one who fulfilled his duties as a master until the end.
“Great Heavenly One, even if only through the fragments of that soul scattered across the world, please remember the spirits of the young girl and her master.”
With a solemn heart, as he recited the prayer, Myung So felt his body trembling violently.
Was it because the will of the Great Heavenly One responded to his desire?
Hearing the sound of his robe tearing, Myung realized it was just his imagination.
“Waaah, if you don’t tell me where he is quickly, I’m gonna scold the monk really badly!”
Oknodie grabbed Myung So’s collar and shook him.
What on earth has she done, he felt an unusual energy rising from the child’s core.
Like a function that had been
The energy was so immense that if it were a living being, it would have undoubtedly felt the life energy and bio-mana waves that should be sensed.
As he thought about how the child might go on a rampage before fulfilling Destroyer’s last wishes, Myung So panicked and opened his ultimate technique.
[Myung So]
[Ultimate of Meditation: Reflection Pool]
An area where absolute calm is guaranteed, free from any external influences.
As that domain sought to forcibly include Oknodie within its range of ‘self,’ a knife struck at the cliff inside the inner world of Myung So with terrifying speed.
– The knife stuck in the cliff is soon the engraving of the heart’s kill.
– Until this knife is completely pulled out, I shall be bound by my vow upon the reflection pool, forbidding all growth.
Even the mere attempt to pull it out forced dozens of days of brutal training as if he was bound by the killing intent.
If he could just endure a few more seconds, it would easily exceed a year, and if he tried to withstand a minute, he would find himself caught in a wicked mass of aversion that could far surpass several decades.
‘This killing intent cannot be blocked by a human heart!’
Just as Myung So was in shock and released the reflection pool, the energy that Oknodie had been infusing with a show of spirit also receded.
Reasoning that the energy was influenced by the rising dark mana, Myung So asked.
“What on earth are you doing? Do you intend to send both master and disciple away on the same day?”
“You know nothing and act as if everything is over! Collecting medals gives health bonuses!”
“Collecting medals…?”
As Myung So pondered the meaning of those words, he noticed Oknodie always carried a backpack filled with ‘collectibles.’
That backpack had been present when heading towards the Wahyhiemhai Foundation and always had it while toppling the Holy Central Empire.
Then perhaps that backpack holds something that could save even Destroyer, who has been pushed to the brink of death by dark mana.
“To think I would break my request to ensure we never meet again in such a way. Destroyer, I hope you are not doing anything unnecessary!”
Myung So decided to heed Oknodie’s insistence.
