“You finally got the hang of it.” Pauld smiled. It was a clear smile that matched the little boy’s face but looking closely, it was creepy. There were no emotions in the large eyes. Light didn’t shine in it and it showed no moods, so it didn’t match the smile on his face. It was impossible for a corpse to have true emotions. The smile was nothing but an act to realize his soul.

Agnus used to believe that the deceased was the second return of Luna. Now he saw Pauld’s empty smile and nodded. “I’ve definitely adapted.”

Every time Agnus’ deceased moved, dozens of bizarre devices in his body rotated with a slight sound. It was just abstract magic power for someone else, but it was a process of absorbing resources like mana or aura from the outside and then filtering them into power. The materialized power was launched from the deceased’s heart. It was made by Pauld and was a magic organ that shouldn’t exist.

Just then, there was the terrible noise of bones breaking in the deceased’s body like a doll being pulled by a thread. The joints that twisted in the reverse direction moved like tentacles. An ordinary human being would definitely be affected by the shock.

However, Agnus’ deceased was literally a corpse. It just moved and it naturally didn’t feel pain. The deceased didn’t care about the broken Achilles tendon and kicked off from the ground. The acceleration was so fast that even Agnus missed some of it despite having transcendent vision from the Baal’s Contractor class growing to legendary rated, 2,500 points in agility, and the correction from various titles.

‘It is more than I expected.’

Agnus was convinced by the appearance of the deceased, who learned how to use the magic organ in exchange for the body turning into rags. The moment he created a deceased with a body sturdy enough to withstand the output of the magic organ, the number of targets he needed to fear would be significantly reduced.

***

“You are much more persistent than I thought.”

Mir, the owner of the Blue Dragon Dao. He was called the strongest yangban, but he had never been proud due to this identity. A yangban? He was just a soldier born and trained to get revenge for the expelled gods. Even if he built up divinity and became a god, his natural destiny wouldn’t change. After all, he existed under Hanul and would disappear after fighting for Hanul’s sake. This was why—

“Every time I see you being cut, stabbed, killed, and resurrected, only to point your sword at me again, it... It makes me feel the compulsion to learn from your mindset.”

Mir dreamed about becoming the martial god. He didn’t have a grandiose intention like wanting to get rid of Hanul’s shackles. He just wanted to establish a ‘me,’ not a created half-god or a created god. This was why he was obsessed with martial arts. Throughout his life, he honed everything in the category of talent including the body of a half-god, power, and lifespan. He didn’t stop trying hard unlike the other yangbans.

Yet it was only recently that he realized something. He learned from the man in front of him that what he always thought was hard work was nothing more than relying on his natural talent.

“Gasp... gasp... gasp...” The eternal snow created by the blue dragon’s curse was dyed red and the body of the man lying on it was full of wounds. The man was dying, just like a week ago, a fortnight ago, and a month ago. However, the time it took to reach the result of death was different every time. Half a month ago compared to a month ago, and even today compared with a week ago, the man persisted for a longer and longer time before falling.

A drop of blood dripped down a finger onto the snow. It was Mir’s blood. There was a faint wound on his left shoulder. Every time the man persisted for a longer time, the wounds on Mir’s body increased. It wasn’t deep, but Mir was alert.

The man slowly closing his eyes on the red snow was the present day Sword Saint, Kraugel. Mir felt anxious that Kraugel might soon leave a wound that couldn’t be erased.

***

[Your level has decreased.]

It was already a decrease of three levels. Unlike the average person, Kraugel gained 15 stat points every time he leveled up, so the loss was quite significant. It was enough to feel his weakened strength. Even so, Kraugel’s heart was very relaxed despite the weight of the sword in his hand.

‘It increased by four this time.’

Kraugel checked his super sensitivity stat and smiled lightly. The super sensitivity that changed from a skill to a stat after becoming the Sword Saint was special among the hidden stats. It was the strongest combat-related stat exclusive to the Sword Saint. The only downside was that raising it was very difficult.

Kraugel’s super sensitivity stat was less than 40 before he came to Kaya, but now it was 67 points. It was thanks to fighting the yangbans, especially Mir, during his stay in Kaya. The more he reacted to Mir’s attacks, the more Kraugel’s super sensitivity grew rapidly.

In return, he suffered a total of eight deaths from Mir alone, losing a significant amount of experience and a few items. Still, it was worth it to Kraugel. He had already fallen to level 1, so he was acclimated to the concept of losing levels. He could just obtain more items. His bank balance was recovering since his mother overcame her illness...

Of course, the White Tiger Sword was placed in his warehouse. Even Kraugel would have to worry about bankruptcy if he dropped the White Tiger Sword.

“Welcome.”

“Please open Warehouse 378.”

It was a small town. It was a town built in the desert, as if to prove why Kaya was called the kingdom of sand. Kraugel designated this place that was completely different from the snow-covered capital as the resurrection point and stopped by the warehouse immediately after his resurrection to find the White Tiger Sword. He chewed on jerky and moved to the hunting site.

It was necessary to be prepared for death when fighting Mir again. Before then, he had to build up as much experience as he could.

***

Obora, the new master of the 22nd Hell, was one of Berith’s devoted retainers. The impact was very weak compared to Berith, who could deceive the system with the power of lies, but the overall combat power was quite excellent. The snake-like lower body bent geometrically and attacked at totally unexpected angles, and the force of the tail was heavy enough to stiffen the God Hands. Additionally, his scales were hard and resilient. He was challenging in many ways. Even if the messengers were under a severe penalty, the fact that the raid time took more than two hours meant Obora was strong.

‘Maybe that is why he dropped something nice.’

The appendage dropped by Obora was a ‘spine.’ It consisted of seven cervical vertebrae, 20 thoracic vertebrae, and four lumbar vertebrae. Once extended, the length reached three meters. However, it was possible to combine each one and it could shrink down to one meter.

It was one of the reasons why it was hard to deal with Obora. Obora’s snake-like tail took various forms and its length changed, so it was hard to read and deal with the attacks. If he didn’t have his transcendent senses, then Grid would’ve suffered serious injuries like the other messengers.

‘I want to use this as a new sword material.’

It was a sword that swung like a whip and could change its length. The more the enemies read and responded to the trajectory of the sword, the more likely they were to fall into an ant hell.

However, there were many shortcomings with it as a new sword material. There was cartilage in every bone joint of Obora’s spine, so it was virtually impossible to smelt it like a mineral. Of course, it was the cartilage of a great demon, so it was flexible but hard as steel. Nevertheless, it was likely to be damaged as soon as it was put in the furnace.

‘If I ignore it and smelt it, the spine itself will become harder. However, if the cartilage is damaged then it will lose the unique function of the spine.’

It couldn’t be swung as a whip or to shrink and expand. It would just be a long, whole bone.

‘If I make it into a sword, the durability and attack power will be far below the level of a sword. Um, what if I separate all the bone joints and reconnect them with links instead of cartilage? No, it is better to rebuild the bone joints with Greed.’

Grid considered it for a long time before concluding that it was impossible to replicate Obora’s spine with other metals. Of course, he could replicate the form, but it was impossible for the ability of a blacksmith to completely preserve or reproduce biological functions.

“Ah!” Grid suddenly came up with a good idea. There was a method borrowing the power of the system. Use the pure Obora’s spine to make a sword first and get the ‘Spine Sword Blueprint.’ Then use Greed as the material to make another Spine Sword!

‘...Ah, damn. It is impossible.’

It was naturally impossible. The blueprint would specify that Obora’s spine be part of the essential materials. Grid was troubled for a long time before summoning the manager of Reidan’s alchemy facility.

The manager ran over through the warp gate the moment he received the call and greeted Grid while placing his palms together, “Did you call, Your Majesty?”

The manager was a craftsman alchemist and a named NPC. However, he spent so much money that he couldn’t act confidently in front of Grid.

“I want to make parts out of Greed that function exactly like this spine, but it isn’t possible with my techniques alone. Can I borrow the power of alchemy?”

“That... With all due respect, it is impossible.”

“No, why can’t you do it? Isn’t the ultimate purpose of alchemy to make miracles? It is just one spine. I don’t think it can even be considered a miracle.”

“The science of alchemy itself has been ostracized due to ancient alchemists who dreamed of eternal life or creation committing many inhumane behaviors. The name is the famous Philosopher's Stone. The alchemists who longed for the Philosopher's Stone were even more cruel than the Yatan Church followers who worship evil gods and demons.”

The TMI started...

“All nations and species on the continent defined alchemy as heresy and expelled the alchemists from the continent. Thousands of years later, alchemists tried their best to recover their lost rights. Part of the efforts included disposing of all materials related to the Philosopher's Stone. Creating or replicating a part of life, which includes the parts of a creature, belongs to those discarded materials.”

“So the conclusion is that you can’t even reproduce a spine?”

“...I’m sorry. I am ashamed.”

“Sigh, it’s fine. Go back first.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Please call me again at any time if you need me.”

‘Why? You didn’t even help when I called...’ Grid was pretty callous toward the alchemy manager. In Grid’s eyes, this person was just a money-eating hippopotamus. This didn’t mean he doubted the manager. He just didn’t like the study of alchemy itself.

“......!!” Some time after the manager left. Grid was deeply sighing and thinking about working on something else when he received a shock. It was because he suddenly came up with a brilliant idea.

‘It isn’t a big problem, right?’

The moment Obora’s spine was used to create a sword, it would be judged as an item. Grid had the Item Transformation skill. If he changed Greed into the Spine Sword then he could temporarily make up for the lack of attack power and durability. It was a ‘time based divine sword’ founded using the principle of the Blood Sword.

‘If it is impossible to make a divine sword, then I will make it temporarily become a divine sword.’ Yes, let’s make it first.’

Grid pulled out Obora’s spine that had been in the inventory for a while, placed it on the anvil, and used Open Potential on his blacksmithing technique. The production of the Spine Sword was immediately launched. Well, the word spine was a bit cruel. It was a good idea to give it a name like the Backbone Sword.