A new feature was added to the Rune of Gluttony. It could be used to enhance the mental world. There was a premise that the powers imprinted on the rune would be used as a resource, but it wasn’t a big penalty. The power in the rune didn’t necessarily show off outstanding prestige. The power gained in the early days or by killing the lower ranked great demons were less valuable.

Grid thought this new function was good because the fuller the rune’s capacity, the less likely it was to absorb a power.

It was just shortly after killing Michael. One of the reasons why Grid was in a good mood after the successful Michael raid was the new feature of the rune. However—

‘Is this right?’ Grid gradually had doubts. He hesitated without trying to strengthen his mental world. His experience with Braham and Hayate’s mental world had alarmed him. Braham’s mental world accumulated knowledge, while Hayate’s mental world released infinite sword energy...

Their mental worlds contained their essence. Grid’s essence was a blacksmith. Of course, ‘Greed’ was also a characteristic that represented Grid. It wasn’t strange that the Rune of Gluttony, that grew from absorbing the power of others, would become the material for Grid’s mental world.

‘If I have to prioritize it, I would prefer blacksmithing over the rune.’

He grew because he was a blacksmith, allowing him to get the rune. The origin of Grid’s ability to fulfill his greed was his blacksmithing ability.

‘This... the more I think about it, the more it is like a landmine.’

He had an ominous feeling that his origin would be weakened as soon as he strengthened his mental world with the rune. Of course, this was just a conjecture. It was only a guess based on ’intuition.’ It was highly likely that it wasn’t a trap. Nevertheless, Grid found it hard to shake off his doubts.

‘Look back on my recent life.’

Everything was resolved smoothly. His hard work was rewarded with too much luck. He was literally lucky. He even forgot about the concept of misfortune for a moment.

Was this the life of a man called Grid? No, absolutely not. In Grid’s life, luck and bad luck always coexisted. Based on his current results, the total amount of good luck was higher, but after the initial luck, his luck became worse than anyone else. It wouldn’t be strange if his recent good luck caused a rebound.

‘Most of the misfortunes happened when I was careless.’

Grid wasn’t overly confident in himself. He had long been aware that he wasn’t smart. He had the experience of his nose being flattened due to being careless and rushing. Therefore—

‘Using the rune to artificially enhance my mental world... I’ll put it off until I have confidence.’ Grid made a choice. He resisted the temptation that was too sweet. ‘My mental world right now is pretty strong anyway.’

He had experienced how powerful it was to enhance an item through the Michael raid. Of course, it couldn’t stand a chance when meeting enemies who were overwhelmingly strong without items or who could easily neutralize an incomplete mental world, so he hoped for the mental world to be strengthened. The mental world was a very important concept. It wasn’t a matter to be hastily decided. Moreover, Grid had fought and won against strong enemies without a clear mental world. It was funny to suddenly be impatient now.

Grid turned a blind eye to the eye-catching flashing visual effect of the new mental world enhancement function and confirmed Michael’s Power.

[Michael’s Power]

[Enhance your weapon with a powerful divine power.

A total of three enhancements are possible, with each enhancement increasing the attack power by 20% and doubling the attack distance.

Each attack will scatter remnants of divine power. Deal fixed damage proportional to the weapon’s attack power to targets touched by the light remnants.

Divine power cost: 5,000 per second.

Enhancement duration: 1 minute.

Cooldown Time: 3 hours.

★If the user has no divine power then other resources will be consumed. However, the increased weapon attack power from the enhancement will be reduced to 15%.]

‘It is great looking at it again.’

Grid had no divine power, thus the total increased weapon attack power from Michael’s Power was only 45%, not 60%. Grid’s weapon boasted distinctive attack power, so it was even more regrettable. Still, Grid didn’t care.

Michael’s Holy Sword grew in size every time divine power was added. It endured without retreating in the face of Grid’s divine swords, but the greatest strength wasn’t the power of the weapon itself, but the ability to dominate the space. Every swing occupied a distance of 8 meters and completely incapacitated the target by spreading particles of divine power within range.

If Grid’s health and defense were at a level before he transferred to the myth class, it wouldn’t have been strange if he died from that baptism of light. Even if he avoided the Holy Sword, the particles spread around him exploded and bombarded him. It was due to this bombardment that Grid overestimated Michael’s strength during the battle.

In particular, Grid’s attack speed was faster than that of Michael without the Trinity. He was confident that his destructive power when using Michael’s Power would be higher than Michael’s.

‘Of course, I can’t control the remnants of power as delicately as Michael does, nor induce a variety of functions, but.. this is enough.’

Michael used the remnants of divine power as a spear, bomb, or heal. Michael’s Power, that was attached to this rune, didn’t support these functions. It was a pity, but obsession was meaningless.

[★ The power engraved in the rune can be used as a resource to enhance your mental world.]

As Grid glanced at Michael’s Power, the rune’s description flashed faster. It was a temptation. It blamed the penalty of his lack of divine power and whispered that Michael’s Power should be used as material to strengthen his mental world. It was like a shortcut to get stronger much faster. This increased Grid’s doubts even further.

‘It is a trap no matter how I look at it.’

He couldn’t forget how sneaky the S.A Group was. Was it a two-faced strategy? It wasn’t strange for them to make a theme song for him on the surface, just so that he would let down his guard, before stabbing him in the back. This was the period when he should be most vigilant.

“Open Rune of Gluttony.”

Grid calmed down, came to an open space, and took out the Fire Dragon Sword. He used Michael’s Power in view of Haster, who was fighting with the God Hands. The Fire Dragon Sword was covered with orange mana. He used mana to enhance the weapon. It was a concept often referred to as aura, but it was dyed with Grid’s color.

Flinch.

Haster felt a vast energy and turned his gaze to Grid. Grid enhanced the Fire Dragon Sword for the second time. A red energy covered the aura. It soon blended in and increased its size. This time, blood surrounded it instead of mana.

[The strength of Michael’s Power is amplified by stacking two resources. The weapon’s attack power will increase by an additional 10%.]

“......!” There was a hidden feature. He was glad. It was a very grateful thing. The penalty for the lack of divine power was significantly reduced. Additionally, the resource needed to maintain the enhancement was ‘mana’ and it was less burdensome.

Grid smiled deeply as he enhanced the Fire Dragon Sword for the third time. Orange aura and red blood mixed together and swirled around the Fire Dragon Sword. Then a red energy rose like a light. Fighting energy was formed.

[The strength of Michael’s Power is amplified by stacking three resources. The weapon’s attack power will increase by an additional 20%.]

“Hah…” Grid used Michael’s Power to increase his weapon attack power by a total of 75%. Not only did he overcome the penalty of not having divine power, but he also turned it into an advantage. Above all, he liked it because it was cool.

“Grid...?”

Grid’s mouth twitched while Haster’s face stiffened. Haster had an ominous feeling when he saw the God Hands stop moving. He was worthy of being a legendary professional gamer. He had good senses.

“One hit. You can avoid or block it.” Grid swung the sword.

Haster was approximately 8 meters away, but the sword covered in aura, blood, and fighting energy stretched all the way to him. “Crazy!”

Wasn’t this the skill that the angel called Michael previously used at the Vatican? He had watched it live and remembered it.

Haster made an incredulous expression and leaned back quickly. Haster’s white, stricken face was like a poodle. It was the aftermath of the wind pressure. The sharp aura, sticky heat of the blood, and the pressure of fighting energy was added and the air cutting sensation was unusual.

“......?” Haster narrowly escaped the attack, but a chill ran down his spine. It was a huge sword light that stretched out in a distinct fan shape. A slight sound was heard from the remnants of light. Haster had the highest hearing ability and quickly realized what this meant. ‘Explosion!’

He hurriedly moved his body and triggered the power of the seven malignant saints. It was for defense. However, it was still on cooldown time. It was consumed fighting the God Hands. There was an earth-shaking explosion. The aura that was as beautiful as a sunset, the blood that was as gorgeous as a zinnia in full bloom, and the fighting energy that rained down sharply like a thunderbolt, covered Haster. He wondered if a body on a crashing plane was like this.

Haster was swept away by the series of explosions and flew far away, rolling around.

[Your health has fallen to a minimum, so sparring mode is terminated.]

“......”

Was this how a training scarecrow felt like? Haster stared blankly at the sky, beyond the rising warning windows, and swallowed down his sorrow. Indeed, it was disgraceful that he was the only one to receive one-sided help from Grid. Instead of borrowing the God Hands, purchasing items, and receiving help, it was right to help as a sandbag.

Haster was sufficiently convinced, but he couldn’t help feeling sad...

Meanwhile, Grid was smiling.

[★ The power engraved in the rune can be used as a resource to enhance your mental world.]

Even though the rune information window was closed, the description of the new feature flashed again.

[Do you want to enhance your mental world?]

[If you enhance it now, the bonus for being the first player to open the mental world enhancement system will greatly increase the probability of success.]

Additionally, there was an extra bonus. This was beyond the level of temptation. It was compelling. At this point, Grid was convinced. ‘This is 100% a landmine.’

His experience wasn’t built up in vain.

Grid got rid of his dejection and chose ‘No.’ The information window of the rune was folded up like trash and thrown away. He laughed at the shameful condescension of the notification window that said it was a chance of great success, not ‘unconditional great success.’ Then—

[The player’s first mental world enhancement opportunity was denied.]

[The myth predators are interested in you.]

[The specter of the No Offspring Tomb is paying tribute to the spirit of the person who leaves the comfortable path and seeks trials.]

[Your incomplete heart, body, and skill are looking for balance.]

“Um...” Completely unexpected messages appeared. ‘Sometimes you need to look back on the road’ was a saying for a reason.

Grid made a satisfied expression after testing Michael’s Power and returned to the smithy.

"What is this?” Did Grid really come out here just to hit him once? There was nothing else? The sandbag left behind, no, Haster got up and muttered to himself. Then he started cleaning up the empty clearing that was ruined in the aftermath of the explosion. He thought he should clean up the mess since he was a dependent and borrowed the small space. He felt a sense of shame.

It happened as the mesmerized Haster was focused on cleaning up...

He heard a sound from behind the smithy. Haster’s keenly developed hearing heard footsteps. It was a faint sound that the hearing of an average person could never capture. Even if they heard it, they would’ve thought it was a common sound.

Haster also considered it a trivial sound. Even so, he reflexively turned his head. Therefore, he was startled to find that the real identity of the sound was made by a person falling from the sky.

The ultimate body with precisely developed muscles—the middle-aged man who fell from the sky seemed skinny at first sight, but his physique was amazing. On top of that, he was wearing a sword. In total, he must weigh at least 100 kilograms. Yet he fell to the ground with almost no sound?

The unidentified guest stared at the vigilant Haster. “Now even the cleaner is hearing the noise I make? The more I see, the crazier it is.”

In the future, this kingdom could even play the role of the tower... no, this went too far. The identity of the man who came and spoke to himself with hard to understand words was Sword Saint Biban. He came in order to bring Hayate’s gift. It was the deciphered language of the dead. Hayate was the absolute who looked at the world from the top of the tower and he knew exactly what Grid wanted.

‘It is better to be a cleaner than a sandbag...’ Haster was once again left alone and tried to comfort himself.