[Sword Saint Kraugel has cut through hell!]

[He has carved a wound that will never disappear in hell.]

“......?” Grid, who was working in the smithy; the Overgeared members and expedition members waiting for the cooldown time of the hell gate; and Lauel, who was discussing strategy with Valhalla; were all startled and closed their mouths. In the silence, Grid’s message came up in the guild chat.

-I sent him to hell to watch the demons and he is beating them up...

The Overgeared members replied.

-It is like watching Your Majesty’s old self. Your Majesty left to rescue Han Seokbong and you ended up bringing 30,000 people back with you... I still can’t forget it.

-Grid once went to the Vatican to bless the pavranium and ended up killing the pope.

-Legend has it that he went to the East Continent and came back a god.

“......”

Everyone seemed inspired by Kraugel’s performance so the chat window was very busy. Since most of the content was praising (?) him, the embarrassed Grid turned off the chat window and got back to work.

***

“Gasp... Gasp...”

A cliff formed by the crack in the ground. As Boleron’s screams rang out from deep below, Kraugel and Ruby gained several levels. It was followed by the achievement rewards and item rewards.

It was a perfect duo. Kraugel turned a crisis into an opportunity, while Ruby supported him and didn’t miss the opportunity.

“It was awesome!”

“You too.”

Kraugel and Ruby looked at each other and laughed in jubilation. They didn’t give each other thumbs up or bump fists. Both people had dignified personalities. There was still a sense of distance. In the first place, they couldn’t afford it. New demons and demonic creatures were coming as if they had been waiting for Boleron to die. The demon on the horse with a fire mane looked particularly strong. He raised his staff and a beam of light shot up.

Ruby came forward. The famous Saintess’ growth type staff was used to draw a golden magic circle. The rays of light that poured on the two of them were absorbed by the magic circle and were replaced with divine power. “Great Heal.”

The head of the demon, rapidly narrowing the distance, was crushed by the light. The master was on the verge of collapse but the horse rushed forward without caring. The demonic creatures followed in the footsteps of the horse. Based on this momentum, it seemed like the horse itself was the leader of this group, not the demon on the horse.

Ruby set up a healing zone on their way and the skin of the horse and demonic creatures burned. The power of the percentage heal was a disaster for all evil beings. The effect of Sanctuary had increased all of Ruby’s stats by 50% and doubled the power of her skills.

“I wanted to tell you nicely that I will take care of it now and you should rest...”

Ruby was connecting the divine magic and blocking the approach of the demonic creatures when she looked perplexed. It was due to the flying demons and demonic creatures coming from the sky. Large or small balls of demonic energy condensed at the end of their snouts. They were specialized in ranged attacks. As it happened, the Saintess had no ranged attack skills. The Turn Undead skill had the longest range, but even that had a maximum range of 60 meters. She had no choice but to devote herself to defense. Originally, Sanctuary also served as a fortress.

“I will have to rest with you. This level of bombardment can be endured with the full strength of Sanctuary. Wait until support comes...?” Ruby was checking the condition of Sanctuary when she suddenly shut up. Her eyes, which were fixed in the air, shook.

It was natural to be surprised. Kraugel was still standing by Ruby’s side. He stood in place and swung his sword. The wavelength crossed over hundreds of meters. The demons and demonic creatures approaching and ready to shoot the rays of light were cut apart, fell, and turned to gray ash. It was the power of a ‘field of view’ skill linked to Barbatos’ Vision.

“Wow! You are like Oppa! Ah, I’m sorry!” Ruby spoke with admiration before hurriedly apologizing. She instinctively compared Kraugel to Grid and was worried that he would be offended.

Fortunately, Kraugel responded cheerfully, “I resemble Grid? Such compliments are welcome at any time.”

“Hehe.”

Ruby had gained Barbatos’ Vision along with Kraugel. It was just that most of her skills were range-limited, making it impossible to link Barbatos’ Vision with her skills. From a general point of view, Barbatos’ Vision wasn’t a combat skill. It was a good secondary skill with a telescope feel. It was reborn as a fraudulent combat skill only for the privileged classes who had ranged field of view skills.

—Just as Kraugel had proven just now.

“This... can the Sanctuary hold on?”

Kraugel’s expression stiffened. In the crack in the earth where Boleron had fallen to death, hundreds of demonic creatures were seen crawling up from the ‘traces of Space Sword.’ It wasn’t dozens but hundreds. Moreover, the demonic energy they gave off was extraordinary.

Ruby’s face turned pale. “It seems like they are from the higher ranked hells. If hundreds of monsters at this level attack at once, the durability of Sanctuary might find it hard to hold on...”

“Then let’s fight.”

The sanctuary was a base for the expedition. They had to maintain the camp until the next group arrived.

It happened as Ruby’s buff skills overlapped over Kraugel’s body, who couldn’t hide his haggard appearance...

A dark passage appeared between the demonic creatures and Kraugel and a huge sword popped out. It slashed and killed the 10 nearest demonic creatures ‘instantly.’

“You’ve endured well.”

It was the appearance of Tyrant Chris. Kraugel and Ruby were relieved to see his shadow spread out widely. The top powers of the Overgeared Guild arrived in a group of two. There was no need to complain any longer.

***

The Overgeared Skeletons and God Hands had something in common—there was no need for them to rest as they didn’t have the concept of stamina. It was different for Ke ong.

“Gasp... Gasp... Hoooo.. Aren’t you hungry? I’m not particularly hungry, but I’m worried about Your Majesty. If you are a human, you have to eat to stay healthy!”

Dwarves were a species with high self-esteem. In particular, they wanted to be the best in their own field. Ke was exhausted enough to fall down straight away, but he didn’t want to lose to skeletons and metal. He worked hard without a breath, but faced both physical and mental limitations. He wanted to rest using the pretext of eating. He also wanted Grid to rest with him. Resting alone was a blatant admission of defeat, so he thought his pride would be very hurt. He knew that it was natural to lose, but... it was hard to resist the instincts of his species.

“Hrmm...”

Satisfy was a repository of taste. It not only reflected all the flavors that existed in reality, but also created flavors that didn’t exist. It was hard to count the number of delicacies. Additionally, one didn’t get fat no matter how much they ate. Therefore, most people were obsessed with taste and enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, Grid was fundamentally a diligent figure. Once he was working, he didn’t want to waste time eating separately.For more than 10 years, he simply took care of his hunger using dried bread or jerky. In particular, he just maintained the ‘not starving’ state when working. It was a story that most people probably wouldn’t believe, but it was true. Perhaps these small commitments gathered together to form the current Grid.

“Yes, let’s take a rest and eat a meal.” Grid knew Ke’s mood and was considerate toward him. They moved to the dining room together. The problem was that the meal was finished in just three minutes.

“Gasp! No. What?!” Ke had just filled his stomach with soup and started to cut the meat. Then he looked pitifully at his trembling hands. Meanwhile, Grid had swallowed all his food.

He pressed a hand to the shoulder of Ke, who was sitting there dumbfounded. Grid forced him to sit in the chair and told him, “Don’t look like that. It is a simple habit. Ke ong, please take your time.”

It was rare for a Korean person to eat slowly. In particular, anyone who had been to the army could intentionally open a black hole in their stomach.

‘It is a waste of time.’

It was possible for him to create one item every eight minutes on average, so the value of time became even higher. Grid shifted his gaze to the window and immediately connected Transcend and Shunpo to return to the palace where the smithy was located. Then he took out the Elf Bow Thimble (Made by Pagma). It was the second target item to be innovated following the Magic Power Ejection Machine that he had done this morning.

‘This thimble can convert non-targeted attacks into targeted attacks.’

The durability was only 111 and it was very low. It was made of leather, so it was easy to damage. It was just that the durability was so low that it was difficult to wear it when fighting against a strong enemy. In many cases, his concentration and actions were wasted because he had to repeatedly swap it along the way.

‘It is a pity that there is a three minute cooldown time.’

The goal was to improve the durability and reduce the cooldown time. It was possible. The Magic Power Ejection Machine proved it.

The innovated Magic Power Ejection Machine doubled the magic power ejection speed and tripled the total amount of mana that could be stored. It also added ‘silver thread’ to the ejected magic power, increasing physical force and variability. It was transformed into a completely different item, so it was possible to improve the thimble enough.

‘After that, I will innovate the artifacts like the direct descendant vampire items and the Ring of Absurdity.’

At first, he wanted to innovate the armor and swords made from the breaths, but he changed his plan. The armor made of breaths and the divine swords already had a variety of special features built in. It was good enough to make full use of them. It was more efficient to focus on strengthening basic capabilities like attack power and defense and this was a very easy task. It would take less than an hour. When innovating artifacts, he should focus on strengthening the effects rather than the basic stats.

In the first place, artifacts had no or minimal basic stats, so it was meaningless to strengthen them. It was only by strengthening the artifact’s unique special functions that he could make meaningful innovations. This work was very difficult and time-consuming. Special materials and conditions were required so it was difficult to calculate how much time it would take.

‘When I have time like now, I have to innovate the artifacts first. In any case, the cooldown time of the innovate skill is 12 hours. It is a waste of time to innovate equipment first.’

Of course, he could make new items when waiting for the cooldown time, but... the more difficult the homework, the more comfortable it was to finish it quickly.

Grid completely removed every part of the thimble and combined it with materials to innovate it to what he envisions in his head. The structure was modified and the shape and materials were innovated. The result was commendable. The cooldown time was reduced to two minutes and the durability increased by six times. There was also a ‘finger amputation immunity’ and small increase in defense that wasn’t there before. Even a small number could be very helpful if accumulated.

‘Should I make the final innovations to the thimble first...?’

Each item could be innovated three times. In other words, the thimble could be innovated two more times in the future. There was a lot of room to reduce the cooldown time. Grid was filled with expectations as he once again used the innovation skill on the thimble.

[This item has just been innovated. The innovated form and function aren’t fully established yet. If you try to innovate it continuously, the item might be destroyed. Do you still want to proceed?]

[After 100 days, there is a 100% chance of succeeding when innovating it.]

‘Come to think about it... I heard that you can’t do plastic surgery again until at least half a year after one surgery.’

100 days was short compared to half a year. He used an example of something he couldn’t do and pulled out another item.

It was Tiramet’s Belt. This item was acquired a long time ago and its performance was weak. There was an expectation that something would change with the soul if the soul-attached item was innovated. Tiramet’s Belt was a very suitable item to prioritize innovating.

-The last group has just entered. I will join in 20 minutes.

He was just thinking this when Yura’s message appeared in the guild chat.

‘Already?’

He checked the time and it had been 36 hours since the expedition started. Yet nearly 300 people were sent to hell.

‘Ah... 20 minutes? Yura’s skill level must’ve increased since the cool time time of the hell gate had been reduced by 10 minutes. The number of available people would’ve also increased.’

It was good. Everyone was growing up together, not just him. Sooner or later, it would grow even steeper. He planned to innovate all of his colleagues’ items whenever he had time. The top priority was...

“Why did you call me?”

It was Zibal’s magic machine, Raiders. He visited the smithy at the perfect timing. Zibal didn’t participate in the hell expedition. It was because he was acting with Zikfrector, who was trying to overcome the Curse of Sloth. Hunting with Zikfrector was also good for Zibal. Zikfrector was that strong.

“Lend me Raiders.”

“......?”

Zibal doubted his ears due to Grid’s demand.

Grid’s hands were busy replacing all the metal that made up Tiramet’s Belt with Greed. It was a task that required a high degree of concentration and delicacy. He turned his gaze to the anvil and explained, “I want to disassemble the magic machine and then reassemble it. I will repeat it three times at most.”

The Overgeared God’s Techniques meant that his speed of understanding items had increased dramatically.

Zibal murmured blankly as he stared at Grid, who behaved like he wasn’t saying anything important, “So why do you want to disassemble my...”

Grid was busy concentrating, thus the explanation he gave was lacking.