It was a truly shocking fact.

Girad was actually a giant race?

Su-ho’s questions kept coming.

“Then is this guy, by any chance, a First Giant too?”

At that question, Seolmundae Halmang shook her head.

- No, that guy isn’t one of the primordial giants like us. But it’s true he’s a top-tier giant at a very high level.

“So that’s why my Giant Sense reacted.”

- That’s right. And in that sense, child, it was a good choice that you didn’t take that guy’s power until now. No matter how much you carry our bloodline, if you didn’t have Giant God Body, your body would have been put under a tremendous strain.

Hearing her words, Su-ho’s face brightened.

In the end, his caution paid off.

- But now it’ll be fine. Now you have Giant God Body too, so even the power of a top-tier giant should be digested without strain. That’s all the advice I can give you right now.

She looked a little apologetic.

But she didn’t need to be sorry at all.

No, he was grateful.

Thanks to her, he could obtain a power he never even imagined.

So Su-ho bowed his head, genuinely filled with gratitude.

“No, Elder. If it weren’t for you, even after obtaining this power, I might have let it rot away for a very long time. But thanks to you, I can take Girad’s power.”

- Hehe, thank you for saying that. And let me ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) add just one more thing. From now on, no matter what great power you obtain, you’ll be able to digest it. Because being able to digest any great power is an innate ability unique to us giants.

Ah, the giant bloodline had an innate ability like that?

This, too, was information he truly never expected.

Su-ho lowered his head and expressed his thanks once more.

“Thank you, Elder. I’ll carve it into my heart and use it widely.”

- Good. Then we’ll meet again next time. Before long, we’ll be able to meet again.

“Yes. Thank you both so much. Ah—Elder.”

- Hm?

“If it’s all right, may I ask just one more thing I’m curious about?”

- Ask.

“Honestly, I’ve wanted to ask from the start, but there’s an order to things, so I couldn’t ask, but.......”

- Hehe, what is it that you’re dragging it out like this? It’s fine, ask comfortably.

“Thank you. Then, as you’re being considerate, I’ll ask right away.......”

Su-ho opened his fingers and pointed down as he asked.

“This place we’re standing on right now—when I looked at it from far away, it looked like it had a human shape. Is this also a giant?”

- .......

At Su-ho’s question, Seolmundae Halmang fell silent for a moment.

Cronos snickered as if he found it commendable.

Soon, she smiled and said,

- I’m sorry. I can’t tell you that yet. But before long, you’ll find out.

A security issue.

So he coolly nodded.

“I’m lacking. Understood.”

- Haha, yes. Thank you for understanding.

“Yes, thank you. Then.”

- Yes, see you again. I’m sorry I couldn’t answer.

With gratitude, Su-ho bowed one more time.

Seolmundae Halmang and Cronos waved their hands, and then Su-ho’s vision faded out as if it was drifting away, blinking black, and when he opened his eyes again, it was the familiar Subspace House.

‘I’m back.’

Back in the Subspace House, Su-ho immediately checked his status window first.

[ An Su-ho ]

Lv: 302

Class: Blood Cardinal

Rank: Middle Player

Traits▲: ＜New Blood▲＞＜Heracles▲＞＜King of Ruin＞＜Grid’s Partner＞＜Sun-Moon Body＞

Giant Strength (P): 66

True Demon (S): 107

Senses (P): 18

Command (N): 121

Bonus Stats: 11

After scanning the status window, Su-ho invested the 11 bonus stats he had obtained into Giant Strength.

‘Now all that’s left is Fairy Blood.’

If he handled the Fairy Blood matter, then all trait quests would finally be wrapped up.

‘After that, of course.......’

Su-ho’s gaze moved to Heracles▲, located next to New Blood▲.

Once he finished the trait quests, it would be the turn of the unlocked ‘Fate of a Hero,’ of course.

Su-ho nodded, opened his inventory again, and checked Girad’s Rune.

[ Girad’s Rune ]

Rank: S+

# A rune containing the power of Girad, called the ruler of the desert.

# When using Girad’s Rune, you can inherit and use Girad’s power.

# Information about Girad is extremely limited—except for the fact that he is related to ancient beings.

An ancient being.

He used to fear it, but now it didn’t really scare him.

Because Giant Sense was urgently signaling him to commune with this.

Su-ho trusted Giant Sense and Seolmundae Halmang and used it.

[ You use Girad’s Rune. ]

[ Girad’s Rune is absorbed. ]

At that moment—

Shuaaa!

Along with the system notification, an enormous amount of energy began to surge into Su-ho’s body.

‘What the—!’

It was truly an immense power.

It made sense.

It whipped around so violently that if he slipped up even a little, it was the perfect kind of force to make him lose consciousness, like a beer bottle flailing after getting swept up in a rapid current.

And that wasn’t all.

The way Girad’s energy burrowed into every corner of his body was so rough that if he didn’t have Giant God Body, it felt like his flesh would burst at any moment.

‘Now I get why the Elder said it would’ve been a disaster if I didn’t have Giant God Body.’

As expected, it never hurts to test a stone bridge before crossing it—there’s nothing wrong with being wary of unfamiliar things, especially things entering your body.

Su-ho immediately sat down, crossed his legs, and activated his skills.

[ Blessing activates. ]

[ Endurance activates. ]

[ Un-Gi-Jo-Sik activates. ]

There was no better combination than this for enduring pain.

With his legs crossed, Su-ho began focusing his mind, and soon, as Un-Gi-Jo-Sik started to activate properly, the pain gradually began to subside.

It was while he had been focusing only on fusion for a long time.

[ You have successfully fully absorbed Girad’s Rune. ]

A system notification.

At last, the notification he wanted appeared.

But at that moment—

Hwaaaak!

All of a sudden, it felt like a strong gust of wind blew, and a certain force pierced through Su-ho’s mind as if drilling straight through it.

And the moment that incomprehensible force pierced through, he saw, in his mind, the silhouette of some existence sitting in meditation, and behind it, a white circle rising like dawn, and then countless arms, hidden in backlight, receiving that light.

‘This is.......’

Hwaak!

The sensation of wind came again, and he snapped back to his senses.

A mere instant.

But Su-ho saw it.

Because of the backlight, he could only see a black silhouette, but he saw some existence sitting in meditation with countless arms.

And yet that figure was far too familiar.

What was it?

Where had he seen that?

Then a certain existence came to mind.

‘Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara?’

Yeah. Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.

One of the bodhisattvas venerated in Buddhism, and its representative trait was a bodhisattva with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes.

At a glance, it might look similar to the Hecatoncheires, but the genres themselves were different.

‘But a Buddha suddenly shows up here?’

It wasn’t like there were no gates or items themed around Buddhism, like monks or a Buddha.

But Girad was the ruler of the desert and a giant, and suddenly a Buddha?

It felt a bit out of nowhere.

Of course, there was no guarantee what he saw just now was truly Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.

It was just that the black silhouette was sitting in meditation, and behind it countless arms spread out like branches, so it made him think of Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.

That was when—

[ You have mastered Desert King’s Memory (S). ]

[ You have mastered Girad (S+). ]

[ You have discovered ancient power for the first time. ]

[ You have achieved a great feat, and the system gifts you 10 bonus stats. ]

System notifications rose up.

Seeing the notifications, Su-ho smiled.

Because along with two skills, he had also obtained 10 bonus stats.

But Desert King’s Memory, sure, fine—but he used Girad’s Rune and obtained Girad?

Could it be a summon-type skill, like Cheolma’s horn?

Thinking that, he was about to check the two skills, when—

[ ■■ has awakened. ]

[ ■■ takes great interest in you. ]

[ ■■ is watching you. ]

An unexpected notification popped up.

It was about a new Transcendent.

‘■■?’

Who is this one now?

Could it be Girad?

No, if it was Girad, there would only be two black boxes, and more than anything, there was no way a boss monster I killed would show up as a Transcendent.

Then is it really a Buddha, or Budhha?

Two black boxes would make some sense.

Su-ho narrowed his eyes and thought.

But there were no additional notifications after that.

After waiting a little longer and confirming there really were no more notifications, Su-ho immediately checked the information for the two skills he had obtained.

[ Desert King’s Memory ]

Rank: S

# The memories of the Desert King who ruled the desert.

# If certain conditions are met, it can react to the target and you can receive and share the Desert King’s memories.

[ Girad ]

Rank: S+

# A parasitic soul giant.

# Girad is one of the ancient beings, classified as a soul giant that lives by parasitizing a target.

# After successfully parasitizing, Girad’s greatest characteristic is that it erases the host’s ego over time and then completely dominates the body.

# Most lifeforms cannot endure a soul giant’s enormous rank and surrender their bodies.

# Girad is affected by the stats of the body it parasitizes.

Su-ho slowly read through the information on the skills he had obtained.

But the more he read, the more something felt off.

‘What, so Girad wasn’t the Desert King—Desert King and Girad were separate existences?’

He’d always assumed Girad, known as the ruler of the desert, was obviously the Desert King.

But reading the skill descriptions, Desert King and Girad were completely separate existences.

And from what he’d heard from Seolmundae Halmang, he had imagined Girad would have a cooler, more “giant race” image, but it turned out his true identity was a parasite.

‘They call it a soul giant and whatever, but in the end, that just means it’s a parasite that lives by parasitizing a host, right?’

And something like this still gets treated as a giant race......

Life is something you can never fully understand.

‘And...... if that’s the case, Desert King’s Memory seems like it needs certain conditions to activate. Then is the only thing I can take right now Girad?’

But no matter how you look at it, this thing is like a parasite—can I really use it? Even if it got turned into a skill, is it okay to just use it?

Because of the parasite image, he couldn’t help hesitating.

But the conclusion he reached after deliberating was to try using it anyway.

Because Seolmundae Halmang had said that in any case, now that he had Giant God Body, he should be able to handle Girad as long as nothing went too wrong.

‘Still, just in case.......’

Su-ho invested all the bonus stats he had obtained into Giant Strength.

It was so he could raise his stats even a little before challenging something new.

After finishing the stat distribution, Su-ho immediately tried using Girad.

[ Girad activates. ]

The skill activated.

Then light began to shine along the outline of Su-ho’s body, and suddenly something began to burst out from Su-ho’s chest.