Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 458

Flaaash!

As the Rune of Succession activated, Samar’s skill list rose up before Su-ho’s eyes.

Samar possessed a wide variety of skills.

But just like with Xiang Yu, the skill Su-ho intended to obtain was already decided.

‘Shiva Mode is a bit of a shame to pass up, but...’

The performance of Shiva Mode itself was outstanding, but the more you used it, the more Shiva ate away at your mind, so it was better to refrain.

Before long, Su-ho selected a skill.

[ You have selected a skill. ]

[ The skill ‘Destruction Fist Art’ will be stored in the Rune of Succession. ]

[ Storage successful. ]

[ The information of the Rune of Succession has changed. ]

At last, he had obtained the fist art skill that Samar possessed.

Its name was Destruction Fist Art.

Since it was the fist art Shiva used, they must have named it Destruction Fist Art.

Having gotten his hands on Destruction Fist Art, Su-ho immediately used the Rune of Succession.

[ You will use the Rune of Succession. ]

[ Manryugwijong is activated. ]

[ Congratulations! You have acquired Destruction Fist Art (S). ]

[ You have acquired 3 or more S-grade martial arts. ]

[ For achieving a great feat, the system gifts you 10 bonus stats. ]

Seeing the system notifications, Su-ho laughed.

‘Last time it only gave me 5, but this time it’s 10.’

And for good reason: for a single Player to possess multiple S-grade martial arts skills was an extremely rare phenomenon.

‘Anyway, I finally got Destruction Fist Art.’

The two Runes of Succession he had obtained by trading with Grid were secured precisely because of spear arts and fist art skills.

He had no need for other martial arts.

He was already throwing spears to the point of being sick of it, and he had even less reason to shoot a bow.

Su-ho checked the information on Destruction Fist Art.

[ Destruction Fist Art ]

# A unique fist art of Samar Rishi, Shiva’s contractor and India’s greatest martial-god Player.

# Only those who possess the Shiva’s Apostle trait can use it.

# Specializes in destruction and flexibility, with a particular focus on softness.

After reading the information, Su-ho smiled in satisfaction.

Unlike swordsmanship and spear arts, which were all about slashing and thrusting, fist arts, while focused on destruction, were also specialized in flexibility and softness.

Su-ho paid attention to that point.

Because even though it was called a fist art, Destruction Fist Art had extremely well-structured movement and evasion techniques that used the legs.

‘I can finally fill in the gap in my lacking footwork.’

Su-ho recalled Samar’s movements in his previous life, sliding like he was on skates.

Despite being barefoot, no matter what the texture of the floor was or what obstacles lay in his path, he always glided along as if on ice, and his two hands, like those of a Taichi master, never failed to deflect an incoming attack.

‘I’ve got spear arts and now fist arts too—there’s a lot I need to train.’

With this, all of his business in India was finished.

‘Good. Now that I’ve gotten Destruction Fist Art, I should slowly...’

Now that he had obtained Destruction Fist Art, it was time to move on to the next step.

However, Su-ho did not call Cheolma right away and waited for a moment.

And as expected, the system notification he had been half-expecting appeared.

[ ■■ feels interest in you. ]

A Transcendent’s notification.

Seeing that, Su-ho laughed.

‘Knew you’d come.’

Yeah.

He had been wondering why they weren’t showing up.

And the fact that this reaction had appeared meant—

[ ■■ lets out a sigh. ]

[ ■■■■ gives a hollow laugh. ]

[ ■■ gives an awkward laugh. ]

—that the other Transcendents’ reactions were appearing as well.

Su-ho narrowed his eyes.

This time too, the Transcendent’s name was two black boxes, ■■.

But just as when he had thought of Hera, Su-ho knew this guy’s name at a glance.

‘It’s Shiva, obviously.’

Smiling, Su-ho looked up at the sky.

“You, you’re Shiva?”

[ ■■ laughs at your words as if finding them amusing. ]

“So, what do you want?”

No doubt it would be an offer to become a successor.

In response to Su-ho’s question, Shiva answered.

[ ■■ says they have no business with you. They merely found you interesting. ]

‘Hmmm?’

Just found him interesting?

Su-ho narrowed his eyes.

Did that mean they were interested, but would watch a little longer?

‘What a pity.’

Because he had thought that if he became Shiva’s successor, he might be able to obtain even more upgraded martial arts.

However, after expressing himself exactly that far, Shiva truly stopped sending system notifications.

‘Interesting. So you’re playing the wise consumer, huh.’

Sure, go ahead and look around other houses as much as you want.

But even if you say you’re going to look elsewhere, do you really think you’ll be able not to choose me?

Once your standards go up, it’s not easy to lower them again.

Su-ho laughed as he spoke.

“Suit yourself. But I’ll say this in advance: right now I’m the cheapest you’ll ever get me. Keep putting on pointless airs and you might find I won’t take you later, so keep that in mind.”

[ ■■ laughs at your words. ]

Again, they just laughed it off.

Well, do whatever you want.

In the end, you’ll have no choice but to come back to me.

‘Come to think of it, it’s unusual that the other Transcendents are so quiet.’

There was a reason for that.

The other Transcendents were quietly swallowing dryly and clutching their pounding chests as they watched the situation between Su-ho and Shiva unfold.

“Now then...”

Su-ho opened his status window, invested all 10 of the bonus stats he had gained into Senses, then summoned Cheolma.

‘Shall I run through the last course before I go meet Hera.’

Su-ho pulled out his phone, briefly searched for something, then immediately piloted Cheolma up into the sky.

*

Cheolma headed for the northern hemisphere.

The reason he was heading for the northern hemisphere was because a polar night phenomenon was currently taking place there.

‘Before I go to Hera, I’ll acquire the Sun-Moon Body.’

He had found the Rune of the Seven Deadly Sins, dealt with Overload and India’s martial god as well.

He had already proposed to the UN that they gather villain Players in one place, and he had resolved the Association President problem too, so now all that remained was to create the Sun-Moon Body, go to Hera, and—

‘Liberate Fairy Blood and prepare for the next Big Gate.’

There was the Dragon Egg issue too, but after the notification that hatching had begun, there hadn’t been any other changes.

So he had decided to just leave it alone.

Once the hatching was complete, the notification would obviously pop up on its own anyway.

Shaaah!

As he passed Russia and entered the airspace over Iceland, the surroundings gradually began to darken.

He had fully entered the northern hemisphere where the polar night phenomenon was occurring.

Su-ho landed somewhere on the now-dim ground of Iceland.

[ Due to the Original Vampir effect, you do not suffer penalties from darkness. ]

The skill’s effect was starting to kick in.

There was truly not a single speck of light in the area.

Naturally.

Iceland, where the polar night phenomenon was taking place and which, as a small island nation, had failed to overcome its characteristic lack of infrastructure, was one of the countries destroyed by Gates and monsters.

‘That’s exactly why I chose Iceland.’

Iceland, which would have not a single person, had about the same area as Korea.

So it was the perfect environment to freely release clone soldiers and hunt.

Just then—

“Baaaaaa!!”

Thududududududu—

The bleating of sheep.

At the same time, the ground began to rumble.

Su-ho turned his head toward the direction the sound came from.

“Well now, you’re already here?”

Flocks of sheep trampling the earth in herds as they charged toward Su-ho.

They were the Honmeri that had occupied Iceland.

Su-ho hurriedly used his skills.

[ Blessing is activated. ]

[ Army Tactics is activated. ]

[ Blood Armory is activated. ]

For his personal buffs, he only used Blessing, which inflated his stats.

After all, what was important here wasn’t firepower, but the sustainability to hunt monsters in the polar night zone for a long time.

In that sense, clone soldiers equipped with blood weapons were perfect.

Clone soldiers poured out from Su-ho like the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, and the moment each of them was supplied with blood weapons, they charged at the Honmeri without a shred of hesitation.

“Yeah, go beat them up. And if you find any Fragments of Polar Night, pick up lots.”

Su-ho had no intention of participating in the battle.

With clone soldiers here, why would he?

His job was to distribute mana and just sit back watching the ritual while eating rice cakes.

On top of that, as the skill grade of Army Tactics had risen to S-grade, the clone soldiers had become more active and intelligent soldiers.

Not only that, but because they were affected by the stats of the main body, no matter how numerous the clone soldiers became, their firepower was on a level that ordinary field monsters could never compare to.

All the more so since the blood weapons they were holding were, at present, the strongest weapons in the world.

As a result—

[ You have killed a Honmeri. ]

[ You have killed a Honmeri. ]

[ You have killed a Honmeri. ]

[ You have killed a Honmeri. ]

[ You have killed a Honmeri. ]

......

Kill notifications climbed up one after another.

And so, Su-ho’s full-scale farming of Fragments of Polar Night began.

Of course, he didn’t {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} just sit and wait.

[ Blood Armory is activated. ]

From here on out, it would be nothing but boring waiting time.

Su-ho began practicing spear arts he had been putting off due to lack of time.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t spear arts practice, but repeated training of Ganggong Style First Form.

Su-ho thrust the Blood Spear forward and began honing Ganggong Style First Form: Single Strike.

*

“Phew, that should be enough, right?”

It seemed he had spent close to half a day doing nothing but hunting field monsters and collecting Fragments of Polar Night.

The reason he had spent as much as half a day was because the drop rate of Fragments of Polar Night was lower than he had expected.

Still, thanks to gathering fragments that filled several sacks, Su-ho began preparing to leave for the southern hemisphere.

‘And after all that effort, my level didn’t even go up once.’

It was probably largely because the Honmeri’s level wasn’t even 200.

That was fine.

He had come here not for leveling, but for collecting Fragments of Polar Night.

So he intentionally did not attack any Gates.

He figured that later, when the time came, he would gather the Sabers and launch a massive nation-cleansing operation, and that it wouldn’t be too late to do it then.

‘It’s not like there are any particularly dangerous Gates here anyway.’

Of course, there was one more disappointing point.

That even after repeating Ganggong Style First Form for more than half a day, he still hadn’t mastered Second Form. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

‘I’ll just have to swing it more.’

Once he finished his preparations, Su-ho immediately headed for the polar day zone in the southern hemisphere.

*

The place Su-ho headed to on Cheolma was Patagonia, which sprawled between Chile and Argentina.

‘Imagine living long enough to actually come to Patagonia.’

It was a brand he’d only ever seen in department stores, and now he’d come all the way here for an item.

The overall method of proceeding was the same.

Cast Blessing, make clone soldiers, put blood weapons in their hands.

The field here was occupied by field monsters based on animals like penguins and a camel-like creature called the guanaco.

‘Everything here’s just 1-star mobs too.’

A shame.

If they were 2-star, he’d have at least gained a level.

After unleashing the clone soldiers, Su-ho once again picked up the Blood Spear and began practicing Ganggong Style.

By the time another half day or so had passed like that—

‘This should be enough, right?’

Before Su-ho lay just as many Fragments of Polar Day as he had gathered in the polar night zone.

‘All right, then let’s really start grinding.’

Preparations were complete.

All that remained now was tedious repetition.

Su-ho sheathed the Blood Spear and took out a low-grade combination jar.

“Let’s begin.”

Su-ho’s combination jar began to spin without rest.