[You have entered Gremory’s Treasure Vault.]

[You gain 15,131,932 gold.]

The moment he stepped into Gremory’s Treasure Vault, the mountain of piled-up gold caught Hyunsoo’s eye.

Contrary to his expectation that it would be filled with the “strongest of everything” Gremory had gathered over her lifetime, there was nothing much here besides the gold.

This is a little disappointing.

Then—

Hyunsoo spotted a necklace displayed off to one side.

The moment he checked the power dwelling inside that necklace, he could not help but marvel.

What Gremory feared most was her own status ailment skill.

He had never once met anyone whose status ailment skill could compare to hers.

In other words, Hyunsoo had just obtained something more valuable than anything else.

“Kkoko, guide us to a place suitable for an execution.”

As the three of them walked together—

[Punishment begins.]

[The Heavenly Realm cannot be entered by just anyone.]

[All damage is reduced by 40%.]

Hyunsoo’s brow twitched.

What kind of absurd restriction is this?

For once, not even Master Blacksmith’s Pride could resist it.

Then—

[A new story begins.]

Hyunsoo’s eyes narrowed.

Just as I thought.

A heavy restriction was always followed by a heavy reward.

[Sudden Quest: Authorization]

Grade: SS

Restriction: Entrants to the Heavenly Realm

Reward: Ares’s weapon, Heavenly Realm entry permit

Penalty for failure: Death

Description: Examiner candidates are pursuing you after your entry into the Heavenly Realm. If you defeat them, Ares’s weapon will drop with a 100% chance. Time limit: 5 minutes.

[Ares’s weapons are special.]

[100 grams of Adamantium, a god-metal, were used in each one.]

Hyunsoo had come to the Heavenly Realm for two reasons.

The first—

to save Purung, the one who had shown mercy with the divine metal Adamantium by handing him the Sword of Judgment, allowing him to create Unparalleled.

The second—

because there was a chance he might be able to obtain additional Adamantium.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

If he defeated a hundred examiners, Hyunsoo could obtain a total of 10 kilograms of Adamantium.

What is this, some ridiculously sweet quest?

But the reality was clear.

The difficulty was high.

Both his and Raon’s damage had been reduced by 40%.

And on top of that—

[4 minutes 59 seconds remaining.]

He could feel presences everywhere, and the time available to him was limited.

How many can I get?

Hyunsoo’s anticipation soared.

He fixed his eyes on the hundred candidates rushing toward him like a storm.

[Examiner Candidate Bao Lv.497]

Their base levels were absurdly high.

And yet—

“I am a demon.”

The moment those cringe-inducing words left his mouth, demonic energy burst out in a frenzy.

As he stretched one arm toward the hundred examiner candidates charging at him and pronounced sentence, all hundred incoming candidates collapsed to the ground.

“KUHEEEEK!”

“KUEEEEEEK!”

“KRAAAAGH!”

Blood burst from their mouths, and the status ailment Infinite Helplessness took root in them, stripping away their will to fight.

And then—

[Enemies are greatly weakened for 30 seconds.]

[Examiner Candidate Bao Lv.397]

The candidates, their levels having plummeted catastrophically, were thrown into confusion.

Hyunsoo drew Unparalleled and said,

“Well? Who’s more weakened now?”

“......!”

Bao had been greatly weakened as well.

Who the hell is this man?

It was a face he had never seen before, and even the character information above his head was hidden.

He’s using a demonic status ailment skill?

Bao had never in his life encountered someone who possessed power like this.

Then—

something unexpected happened.

Hyunsoo stared in surprise as the hundred candidates forced themselves back to their feet through Infinite Helplessness.

They can still fight like this?

In the past, Hyunsoo and even Valhalla had tasted profound despair under this very status ailment.

And—

it had been powerful enough to neutralize the Bloodthirsty Host in an instant during the fall of Goyad.

But—

the people before him now were overwhelmingly higher-level than either the Bloodthirsty Host or the Hyunsoo and Valhalla of the past.

Their status ailment resistance was also absurdly high.

KRRRRRSH-!

“Divine Spear.”

BOOOOM-!

One heavily muscled candidate came flying in with a spear in hand.

His movements were awkward, as if he still had not adapted to his suddenly slowed body.

Hyunsoo, on the other hand, was suffering only the 40% damage reduction.

Watching the man fly toward him, Hyunsoo pulled Unparalleled back and immediately brought it down once.

KRA-KOOOOM-!

The blazing thunder blinded the candidates.

[You deal 353,315 damage.]

KABOOOOM-!

When the thunder faded, an examiner candidate was revealed embedded in the ground, twitching intermittently.

The people there could only blink as they stared at the candidate buried in the ground from a single strike.

Isn’t he under a 40% damage reduction right now?

How is that damage output even possible?

What the hell is this...?

Immediately—

BOOOOM-!

Hyunsoo brought Headcracker down on the twitching candidate’s skull.

TWAAANG—

[You have executed an examiner candidate.]

[You gain 141 gold.]

[You gain 16,313,051 EXP.]

[You obtain Ares’s Spear.]

Adamantium.

The value of even 100 grams of it was beyond imagination.

Especially once that Adamantium ended up in the hands of someone like Hyunsoo, its value became truly astronomical.

But the reality remained.

There were still ninety-nine of them left.

[4 minutes 11 seconds remaining.]

And there was no guarantee Hyunsoo would win against them.

Fast.

They had definitely been weakened, but their movements still transcended anything ordinary.

And in just thirty seconds, Demon Advent would wear off, allowing them to unleash their full power again.

WHOOOOSH-!

This moment, while the status ailment was still active, was his chance.

Unparalleled flew toward them.

[At Will]

[For 30 seconds, Unparalleled obeys your command as though it possesses a will of its own, and in connection with the passive skill Headcracker, strikes the heads of all beings at the speed of light.]

BAM! BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-!!!

First, Unparalleled began smashing the heads of the beings closest to Hyunsoo.

CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLAAANG-!

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

KRA-KOOOM! KRA-KOOOOOM-!

At the speed of a flash, Unparalleled struck each one twice.

WHOOOOSH—

Every time it did, the candidates scattered as ashes.

Amid the flashing thunder, Bao caught sight of the crude black-hilted sword Hyunsoo drew from his breast.

It was the Sword for the One Who Follows the King.

A ghost walked through the thunder.

“Ghost Step.”

BOOOOM-!

Hyunsoo vanished like light, pressed for time.

He had to reduce the number of enemies as fast as possible.

SLASH-!

SLASH.

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-!

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-!

STAB-STAB-STAB-STAB-STAB-!

After combining thirty-four steps with At Will—

GRAB—

when Hyunsoo seized Unparalleled as it flew back toward him, breathing hard—

[You have executed 28 examiner candidates.]

[That speed is astonishing.]

[You obtain Ares’s Longsword.]

[You obtain Ares’s Mace.]

[You obtain Ares’s Dagger.]

[The effects of the Demon Advent status ailment have vanished.]

The blood that had been flowing from the candidates’ eyes, ears, and noses stopped completely.

Only then did the surging pressure and strength they radiated truly press down on Hyunsoo.

The same was true for Raon.

The worst drawback of the Demon Advent status ailment was that it also applied to allies.

Hiding off to one side and still not fully recovered from the aftereffects of Demon Advent, Raon felt suffocated.

He killed almost thirty of them by himself that fast?

Raon was shaken by the sheer strength of the man named Hyunsoo.

Even now, there was still no shortage of idiots everywhere spouting nonsense like, “Master Blacksmith Hyunsoo is just a blacksmith.”

What part of this looks like a blacksmith?

But the situation was bad.

TINGLE—

Raon was a high-level user himself, so he understood better than anyone.

The candidates—especially the elite trained while wielding Ares’s weapons—were monstrously strong.

And on top of that—

That 40% damage penalty...

That level of damage had only been possible because the enemies had also been weakened during Demon Advent.

Then, the moment Demon Advent was lifted, the candidates swept in.

KRRRRRSH-!

KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRAAASH-!

The candidates crashed into Hyunsoo with movements that felt godlike, and the wounds on his body multiplied.

What was even more astonishing was that Hyunsoo was not being pushed back in the slightest.

CLAAANG! CLAAANG! CLAAAAANG-!

The candidates were thrown back again and again, while Hyunsoo’s entire body became drenched in blood—yet his momentum did not die.

If anything—

[Even If It Breaks.]

[At a moment of absolute mortal danger, you found a breakthrough.]

He blew apart the head of the candidate who had driven a spear through his chest.

Hyunsoo was like a flame that would not go out.

Like a light that kept moving forward.

Then—

“You’re done. You’re not even worth fighting.”

“What, too scared to move, brat? Weren’t you one of the Judges?”

“Tsk tsk, pathetic bastard. It’s embarrassing living under the same sky as trash like you. Was your class a thief?”

“A thief? There’s really a class that pathetic and worthless?”

“Fucking idiot.”

The candidates passed Raon by, looking at him the way one might look at a bug.

At that moment, a thought crossed his mind.

Why had Hyunsoo told him to steal the Judgment series?

Because Hyunsoo had acknowledged him.

Grand Thief Raon.

He operated unofficially, so his name was not widely known, but he was a legend.

And the quest Raon had just received granted him the qualifications to become the king of all thieves.

They had been together only for a short time, but now he understood why Hyunsoo had stood in that place while he himself had become nothing more than “a thief.”

He had retreated.

Hyunsoo had never known how to retreat.

[Your HP drops below 48%.]

Watching Hyunsoo’s HP plunge, Raon’s eyes turned cold.

Wipe. Wipe.

He wiped away every trace of blood running down his face.

Then he pulled the Grand Thief’s Mask Hyunsoo had returned to him over his face.

...A mere thief?

Raon was an assassin-class user, but much weaker than ordinary assassins.

That was only natural, since all of his skills were tied to theft.

And because he knew that himself, Bao and the others had not even bothered paying attention to him.

And they knew nothing of the skill Raon possessed—

Thief Step.

Thief Step was similar to Ghost Step.

The difference was that Thief Step unfolded over thirty seconds and, unlike Ghost Step, carried no power whatsoever to attack the enemy.

At that moment—

one thief walked.

[The legendary Grand Thief appears!!]

The notification rang across the battlefield in the middle of the fierce melee.

Bao stiffened.

The legendary Grand Thief?

Bao was a descendant of a Martial God—so arrogant that he believed himself superior even to Valhalla.

And the candidates, startled by the sudden sense of dissonance, turned their heads.

In that instant—

SHWEEEEENG-!

[For 30 seconds, you plunder without limit!]

Like a ghost, the masked Raon passed through the people standing around Hyunsoo.

And they felt, all at once, the emptiness of something suddenly missing from their hands.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Twenty.

Forty.

Forty-nine.

And at the very end—

even the thing in the hand of Bao, the captain leading the candidates.

Bao panicked.

[Ownership of Ares’s Sword has been stolen from you!!]

When he looked around, every single weapon in the hands of the candidates around him had vanished.

CLATTER, CLATTER-CLATTER, CLATTER-CLATTER-CLATTER-!

When they turned at the sickening sound, they saw a masked man shaking the stolen weapons out of an enormous sack.

It was the very man they had considered too insignificant to even pay attention to.

The one they had mocked as nothing more than a thief.

RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-!

More than sixty kinds of Ares’s weapons poured out of his sack and piled up like a mountain.

The candidates stared at Raon with trembling eyes.

[For 30 seconds, ownership of your weapons has been stolen!!]

“???”

“......!?”

“!?!?!?!?!?!”

[You have lost your weapons.]

[Skills related to swords cannot be used!]

[Skills related to blunt weapons cannot be used!]

[Skills related to bows cannot be used!]

[All damage is reduced by 85%!!]

All around them, the candidates who had lost their weapons stared blankly at their empty hands, then turned to look at the man who had created this impossible situation.

And when several of them, looking at Hyunsoo as he brazenly spread himself as if to say, Go on. Hit me., slammed their fists into his chest with expressions that said, There’s no way that’s real, they were forced to accept reality.

[You deal 531 damage.]

[You deal 624 damage.]

[You deal 613 damage.]

“......?”

“......?”

“......?”

“......?”

Everyone looked at Raon.

Seated atop the piled weapons, Raon—

Hyunsoo’s Slave No. 1 and the legendary Grand Thief—

curled his lips into an arrogant smile.

“What the hell are you staring at, dumbasses?”