Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 462

The boar as big as a house met an early end, unable to even put up a proper fight against the joint assault with Guiyeong.

That made it all the more exhilarating.

It must have been a card Hera had put a great deal of thought into, yet it had died this pathetically.

On top of that, its grade was a boss-grade monster that used ruler-grade Fear.

There was no notification about it, but even without seeing her, it was obvious how much that woman Hera must be grinding her teeth.

Maybe that was why.

At the same time as Su-ho’s shout, the very next system notifications popped up.

[ ■■ gives you the remaining tasks. ]

[ ■■’s tasks begin. ]

[ ■■’s 5th task begins. ]

The moment the notifications appeared, the Guardian of Erymanthos vanished.

It was a shame.

At that level, Guiyeong would have really liked it.

But before he could take any kind of measure, the rocky field and the boar disappeared, the surroundings shifted, and what appeared this time was a deep furrow.

‘A furrow?’

It was then.

Kwoooooooosh!!

A rough sound came from somewhere.

When he turned his head, he saw a torrent of water pouring down from far away.

Only then did Su-ho remember the 5th task.

‘Cleaning King Augeias’s stables!’

The 5th task was none other than clearing away the filth of the enormous stables owned by King Augeias.

Back then, Hercules had been shoveling the filth when he got fed up and changed the course of a river to wash the filth away.

“Don’t tell me that’s why the river’s pouring in?”

No, but if that’s the reason, shouldn’t I be the one dragging the river here in the first place?

However, before he could even raise such a question, the water rushing in from far away had already surged right up in front of him like a tsunami.

‘Who said I was going to deal with something like this?’

If water comes, all you have to do is avoid it.

Su-ho was in a furrow that looked to be at least several meters deep, but he didn’t care about that at all and threw the Guiyeong Spear out of the furrow.

He planned to evade by using Shadow Movement.

However—

Thunk!

The Guiyeong Spear soared up toward the sky, but the moment it left the top of the furrow, it hit something and, with a dull thunk, came crashing back down.

‘Huh?’

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

But while Su-ho was taken aback, the onrushing current slammed into him without mercy and swallowed him whole.

‘Damn!’

The current was fierce.

It wasn’t just fierce—it was violently fierce.

The instant he was struck by the rush of water, it felt like he had been hit by a dump truck.

For a moment, his head almost snapped blank, but he barely grabbed hold of his senses, extended his Blood Sword to its full length, and drove it into the ground to anchor himself.

Guuuuuurgle!

If he surrendered his body to this insane current, no one knew how far he would be swept away.

So no matter how strong the current was, stopping himself first was the right move.

Su-ho slammed the Blood Sword into the ground and then transformed its tip into a hook, fixing it even more firmly.

Thanks to that, he prevented himself from being swept away by the current, but he still couldn’t control the rapid flow.

‘This is going «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» to drive me insane.’

Dealing with this came first, above anything else.

But there was no option to escape upward through the water.

He had already checked by throwing Guiyeong at the beginning.

‘Then the remaining option is...’

Su-ho immediately activated Blood Armory and equipped the Blood Suit for the first time in a while.

[ Blood Armory is activated. ]

Shuaaaaa!

The blood spewing out from the Great Blood Orb instantly wrapped around Su-ho’s entire body, forming a suit that didn’t let a single drop of water inside.

Su-ho formed hooks on the shoes of the equipped Blood Suit and firmly fixed them to the ground.

Just by taking these measures, he would no longer be swept around by the rapid current.

[ Eclipse is activated. ]

Next, he activated Eclipse.

As Eclipse activated, Ilwol, formed from the fusion of Little Sun and Henry Moon, was summoned.

[ You receive sunlight and moonlight. ]

[ The Runes of the Sun and Moon react. ]

[ The powers of the Sun and Moon are activated. ]

[ You receive the Blessings of the Sun and Moon. ]

[ All stats increase by 2%. ]

[ All recovery increases by 2%. ]

Regardless of the raging current, Ilwol alone floated serenely as it was summoned, activating the Sun and Moon Runes Su-ho possessed.

Su-ho immediately activated the Ice attribute.

[ You use the Ice attribute. ]

[ Only the Ice attribute is activated independently. ]

When only the Ice attribute was activated independently, bluish energies began to gather around Su-ho’s body.

Feeling the biting chill, Su-ho immediately used his next skill.

[ Mini Breath is activated. ]

Kwooooooooosh!!

The moment Mini Breath activated, the Blood Suit opened Su-ho’s helmet, and Su-ho began explosively exhaling the air he had secured inside the suit.

As soon as the helmet opened, the raging current smashed into his face, but the power of the Mini Breath spewing from Su-ho’s mouth was no joke either.

And the moment Mini Breath blasted out—

Chajajajajajajak!

Amazingly, the raging current began to freeze as if it were a lie.

Because Mini Breath had taken on Eclipse’s Ice attribute, it had become an Ice Breath instead of a Fire Breath.

‘Got it!’

If he couldn’t escape and couldn’t cut it with a sword, then he had no choice but to confront it with attributes.

What he had come up with was freezing the water itself.

As he exhaled Ice Breath into the swiftly flowing water, the sheet of ice that began forming from the bottom gradually became a massive ice slab that blocked the entire furrow, which was several meters across.

There was no way the current could smash through the ice slab.

He didn’t know exactly what kind of water this was, but no matter what, it wasn’t powerful enough to break through Su-ho’s mana stat, which had reached the Silver color.

Eventually, the ice slab completely blocked off the current.

Su-ho lifted his head and looked up.

‘Just as I thought.’

It was clear that something transparent was blocking the top of the furrow.

In theory, if he blocked the furrow with an ice slab like this, the pouring water should have overflowed upward, but the dammed-up river couldn’t cross the furrow.

‘And this is supposed to be the boss?’

Some river, of all things?

It was then.

[ A boss monster appears. ]

Ah.

Only then did Su-ho remember.

They had said the 5th task was beginning, but there had never been a notification that a boss monster would appear.

- Gwaaaaaaaark!!

At that moment, a noise that combined the sound of phlegm-rattling and metal scraping began echoing from the direction the river had flowed.

Ruuuuuumble!

A trembling vibration.

What would it be this time?

There was a cry, so it didn’t seem to be the river.

At that moment, something hit Su-ho harder than anything else.

“Urgh! What the hell is that smell?”

It was none other than a stench so foul it stabbed straight into his nose.

And by then, it finally came into Su-ho’s view as well.

A huge, long, wormlike existence, riding against the direction the river had swept and climbing back up from far away.

But it wasn’t a worm.

It was long like a worm and its body had the color of dirt.

“Filth?”

It was filth.

And on its end was something that strangely resembled a Hahoetal mask.

“Ah, for fuck’s sake.”

Su-ho immediately pulled the Blood Suit up to cover himself from head to toe.

Then he formed a Blood Shield to brace for its impact.

Kraaaaaash!!

A powerful headbutt.

The force of it was so great that Su-ho’s body was flung back and sent crashing into the ice slab he had created.

Right after colliding with Su-ho, the thing drew back again and burst into wild laughter.

- Gyahahahahaha!

A laugh like that of some old man monster.

At that repulsive laughter, Su-ho pushed himself up and stood once more.

“Wow... were all of you ghosts who died because you never got to body-slam anything in your past lives or what?”

They were always charging in for a body slam.

Anyway, that bastard... what the hell was it?

Su-ho’s gaze turned toward the thing’s nameplate.

- Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth Lv.???

Great Spirit of Filth?

Seeing its nameplate, Su-ho was so dumbfounded he was at a loss for words.

Great Spirit of Filth, seriously?

So that long, wormlike body was all filth?

It was.

Looking closely, that long body stretched out like a dragon wasn’t actual flesh but dirty filth, clumped together and floating as if it were a body through mana.

“Don’t tell me this thing’s concept is the filth that had piled up in King Augeias’s stables?”

This was driving him insane.

No wonder he hadn’t seen any filth or stables from the original Hercules task tale.

Honestly, since it was “cleaning King Augeias’s stables,” he had expected herds of cattle or similar animals to show up.

Of course, in monster form.

But really, after he’d come all the way here and settled things directly with Hera, would she seriously hand him a task that was just cleaning stables, same as the original tale?

“But turning the filth itself into a monster is crossing the line!”

When Su-ho lowered his Blood Shield and drew his Blood Sword, the Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth spoke.

- Gyahahaha! What a shame. If you had left your body to the river to the very end, you could have taken a nice plunge into the Filth Jar at the far end.

“Filth Jar?”

- Hehehehe, then where do you think all that filth went?

“...!”

At that moment, goosebumps erupted all over Su-ho’s body.

Just as it said, if he had really left his body to the current, he couldn’t help but think that a massive disaster would have unfolded.

Su-ho gripped his sword properly and spoke.

“This is so disgusting I can’t stand it. Shut up and let’s just get this over with.”

- Gyahahaha! Fine, then. Let’s see you rampage to your heart’s content!

At that moment—

Bwoooomp!

Its mouth swelled.

[ The Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth uses Filth Breath. ]

A skill so revolting it made him shudder just imagining it came pouring toward Su-ho.

Kwooooooooosh!!

“Ah, fuck!”

A barrage of filth came crashing straight at him.

Seeing that, Su-ho couldn’t help but let out a stream of curses.

Kwooooooooosh!!

He’d rather be drenched in blood than this!

Su-ho twisted his body on instinct and dodged the Filth Breath, and the Filth Breath began chasing after him like a homing missile.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

In all his life, he had never seen a monster this filthy.

He had experienced all kinds of nasty things up to now, but maybe because he knew that thing was made of cow shit, it felt especially, viscerally repulsive.

- Gyahahahahaha!

[ The Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth uses Wave of Filth. ]

“What?!”

Cackling wildly as it used its next skill, the Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth made Su-ho involuntarily gasp in shock.

Wave of Filth?

And he could see the Wave of Filth surging toward him menacingly from afar.

There was no way to dodge it.

He had blocked off the direction the river came from with Ice Breath, so behind him was a dead end.

Maybe that was why.

Kwoaaaaaaaash!!

In the end, Su-ho had no choice but to take the Wave of Filth full-on with his whole body.

- Gyahahahahaha!!

Like waves crashing against a cliff, the dark brown waves of filth pounded Su-ho over and over, and in the end, he was completely submerged in the overflowing swamp of filth.

Seeing that, the Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth laughed so hard tears practically came out of its eyes.

“...Fine, fuck it, I give up.”

- Gya?

“Filth, whatever, just do whatever the fuck you want.”

It was then.

[ Wave Crash is activated. ]

KABOOOOOOM!!

The swamp of filth exploded.

At the same time, the Wave of Filth that had submerged Su-ho split apart like the Red Sea.

“Let’s finish this, you piece of shit.”

And in the gap between them stood Su-ho, drenched in filth and more furious than he had ever been, gripping his Blood Sword and glaring at the Great Spirit of Centuries-Old Filth.