Boom, booom.
The giant slowly closed the distance toward Ban Yu-won, taking one step, then another.
Though its pace wasn't particularly fast, the sheer pressure emanating from its massive fra naturally made one want to step backward.
'The concept... I probably can't read it.'
However, he could sohow make out two concepts that filled its entire body: Giant and Super Strength .
With a depth of at least 500, this was undoubtedly the strongest monster Ban Yu-won had ever faced one-on-one.
Even climbing with his companions had its precarious monts, but this situation was incomparable.
He could maintain his composure only because he knew that even if he died fighting this giant, he would rely retire rather than actually die. Otherwise, he might have fled the tower the mont he saw the giant rise.
"Eve, what do you think?"
"Hiss..."
Eve shook her head with an uncertain expression.
Though Eve had beco an all-purpose supporter after evolving into a spirit beast, capable of showing illusions to enemies and freely transforming her appearance, there wasn't much she could do against such an overwhelmingly large opponent.
"Once I beat this bastard, I'll give you the giant concept too. Then you'll be fine going forward."
"Hiss!"
―Gruooooo
Perhaps annoyed at them discussing the distribution of spoils before the battle had even begun, the giant opened its mouth and let out a roar.
That's when it happened.
Sothing began falling to the ground with heavy thuds from both of its armpits.
―How disgusting!
'Ah, Celon, you were awake? You've been so quiet.'
―I was just dumbfounded by how ridiculous the tower's changes have beco.
Fortunately, what fell to the ground wasn't the giant's armpit sweat.
They were frost giants (though "giant" only ant about 4 ters tall).
"Ah...?"
―Father requires our strength.
―Who dares to stand upon Father's flesh?
―Such insolence must be repaid with death.
Unlike the golem, these giants spoke fluently while glaring at Ban Yu-won, each emanating an ominous aura.
What made matters worse was that their numbers kept increasing.
Ban Yu-won gave up counting after reaching fifty.
At the sa ti, he got a rough idea.
'Is this Norse creation mythology?'
In Norse mythology, there was a giant called Ymir.
As the first being and the progenitor of all subsequent life, he was similar to Pangu from Chinese mythology. Just like the scene unfolding before them, frost giants were said to have been born from Ymir's armpits. ??Ａ????Β????
Similarly, Odin, who was Ymir's descendant (probably great-grandson), committed the ultimate betrayal by leading his brothers to kill Ymir, using his corpse to create the world - this was the frawork of this creation myth.
'If that's the case...'
Though he had suspected it from the start, no matter how many of these frost giants they defeated, their numbers probably wouldn't decrease.
To break through this space, they would have to directly kill that golem that stood over 50 ters tall.
According to Norse mythology, when Ymir died, his blood caused a flood that drowned all the frost giants, so they wouldn't need to fight them one by one - killing the golem alone would solve everything.
'So this Babel Tower really is mimicking all sorts of myths and histories from Earth.'
Christianity, Islam, Norse, Surian - who knew what other mythologies might appear.
Ban Yu-won made a ntal note to gather all sorts of mythological materials when he got ho, then called out to Lilith.
―Vroom!
He had thought there would absolutely be no need to ride Lilith since this was a solo exploration and Room 1 would be cramped, so he hadn't called her... but ta-da! Never say never!
"Actually, Lilith might be the most useful here."
―Vrooom!
As soon as she was called, Lilith assessed the situation and excitedly honked her horn as she let him mount her back.
Without any preparation ti, Lilith shot straight into the sky!
The frost giants who had been advancing while shaking the earth stopped in confusion.
―Father!
―An insect flies in the sky!
―Gruooooooo
When the frost giants whined, the golem roared again.
At that mont, Ban Yu-won noticed an unfamiliar string of characters reading "Void Pressure (空壓)" appearing above his head and instinctively reached out to collect it.
[Absorbing Void Pressure 10.]
The mont he absorb it, he understood its aning.
Void Pressure was the force created when compressed air was discharged in a specific direction.
But without any preparation motion, had that huge golem sohow cast a wind-attribute spell without an incantation?
Though he couldn't know the details, what he needed to focus on now wasn't that but killing the golem!
Ban Yu-won was about to direct Lilith to charge straight at the golem when... sothing occurred to him and he stopped her.
'Still, I should try taking down those giants.'
"Not sure how well this will work, but..."
―Oh, you're going to test it right away? I was curious about it too.
His inventory opened, and a sword automatically erged from it.
The handle and blade length were similar to the Executioner's Longsword.
When Ban Yu-won gripped the Executioner's Longsword and concentrated, the floating sword followed suit, standing vertically in the air with a slight vibration.
First Raindrop [Magic Sword 100, Life 80, Soul 1, Swordsmanship 9, Resonance 3, Unity 5]
This was the fruit of Eve and Lilith's two weeks of labor, Ban Yu-won's contemplation of artifacts and vassals, and furthermore, an artifact born from the ability to grant positive options to products through mutation and the power to divide and embed souls into objects.
Naturally. Because there were twenty-five swords.
There were twenty-four more swords ahead that held exactly the sa concepts as this one.
Each was called the nth Raindrop, and together the twenty-five raindrops were called the Storm Sword.
'Good, I can move it according to my will!'
Analyzing the artifact's concepts, it went like this.
First, Magic Sword to enhance the sword's performance, Life to aim for the sword's growth, and Swordsmanship to increase the sword's power.
These three were the basics, and the rest were additional options.
Resonance was a concept obtained from Lucein Ortima's artifact Astraia's Spica, which Eve, Lilith, and Tyche had nurtured and grown continuously before sharing a portion to embed in the sword.
With this concept, not only could one freely communicate with the target, but it was even possible to temporarily transfer one's power.
In fact, the reason Ban Yu-won had begun crafting this artifact was entirely because of this concept!
'Not just resonance between
and my vassals, but also resonance between vassals.'
If one sword's power isn't enough, then two swords, no, three!
Combining the power of multiple swords to attack the enemy - it could be said that this fantasy alone had driven Ban Yu-won this far!
Then here cos a new thought.
What about combination?
It exists. Thanks to the mutation ability manifesting, the completed artifact gained the concept of Unity!
Without Resonance, he probably couldn't have obtained Unity no matter how much mutation ability he had.
'But both Resonance and Unity are still premature. I need to start by getting used to controlling these swords.'
Ban Yu-won inserted a fragnt of his soul into each of the twenty-five swords.
This was to maximize the effect of Resonance while controlling the swords skillfully.
And what he used as the dium to control the Storm Sword, the so-called command center, was none other than the Executioner's Longsword.
By granting Resonance to the Executioner's Longsword and connecting it to the Storm Sword, he made it possible to control the artifact more intuitively.
For example, like now...
"Go!"
The mont Ban Yu-won raised the Executioner's Longsword and focused his will on the frost giant that had strayed furthest from the group on the ground.
The floating First Raindrop beca tinged with black energy and blazed darkly as it plunged toward the ground!
―Arghhhhhh!
Though it didn't pierce through, the Raindrop struck the giant's shoulder, inflicting serious damage.
While other frost giants tried to strike the Raindrop in anger, the Raindrop controlled by Ban Yu-won's will quickly escaped and returned to his side.
―How is it? Not too difficult?
"It would have been harder without the dium. It's not easy controlling sothing completely different from myself."
Using the Executioner's Longsword as a dium was definitely the right answer.
Right now he only had one, but ultimately, Ban Yu-won's dream was to freely control all twenty-five Storm Swords through the Executioner's Longsword.
"Let's take out another one."
A second Raindrop with exactly the sa concepts as the first erged from his inventory.
The two Raindrops circled around Ban Yu-won as if guarding him, which made Eve and Tyche click their tongues in disapproval.
"Shh, Shh."
"No need to compete, Eve. These don't have consciousness."
Since they contained fragnts of Ban Yu-won's own soul, they were closer to artifacts than vassals.
Of course, who knows how they might change as they absorb other soul concepts and grow.
[Absorbing Void Pressure 10.]
"Alright, go!"
Ban Yu-won issued the attack command while absorbing the Void Pressure concept that had appeared above his head.
The two Raindrops, tinged with dark energy, plunged downward.
The frost giant who had been wounded in the shoulder earlier - this ti the two magic swords pierced precisely through its head and neck, finally claiming its life.
―Wow, it actually killed it. That looked like a pretty tough monster.
"The power is definitely there."
He could handle up to two Raindrops without much difficulty.
It was hard to describe exactly, but it felt like having two new fingers he could move at will.
If he wanted to, he felt he could even make those two swords perform a sword dance.
―The coward attacks from afar!
―Catch those burning skewers and break them!
―They're too fast to catch, so...
―Stones! Let's throw stones!
The giants only started considering counterasures after one of their comrades had died.
anwhile, Ban Yu-won was checking the concepts from the frost giant that had flown to him along with the two Raindrops.
[Absorbing Life 5, Ice Magic Power (氷魔力) 3, Giant 5, Super Strength 3, Soul 2. Giant is a concept that humans cannot possess.]
"Oh my."
Not only was each concept highly pure, but most were also high-tier concepts.
Though the lack of a physical body was sowhat disappointing, he thought this might be due to their unique thod of creation.
Ban Yu-won first absorbed Life and Ice Magic Power completely, which raised Life by 2, and Ice Magic Power split into ice and magic power... surprisingly, this 'ice' increased his elental magic depth by 1!
It worked on the sa principle as when he had absorbed volcano to increase his elental magic achievent.
"This is amazing..."
As promised, he granted Giant and Supernatural Strength to Eve.
Judging by how Eve's Beast and Shapeshifting concepts each grew by 1, it seed they had successfully extracted the Beast concept from Giant.
"You two can share the Soul."
The Soul depth of both the first and second Raindrops increased to 2.
After gaining such profitable results from killing just one frost giant, Ban Yu-won couldn't help but have other thoughts.
[Absorbing Void Pressure 10.]
"The golem isn't as strong as we thought, and the frost giants are even easier..."
Of course, the sight of a 50-ter golem was intimidating, but its movent speed was inherently slow, and from a distance, it could only attack with 'Void Pressure'.
The frost giants had also started looking for stones to throw, but as previously proven, Ban Yu-won could nullify projectiles by absorbing their concepts.
They were easy to kill, and what's more, new ones would pop out from under the golem's arms whenever one died.
"...Shall we try it?"
A third Raindrop quietly erged from his inventory.
Ban Yu-won licked his lips, locked onto a frost giant with the Executioner's Longsword, and launched all three magic swords at once.
Ban Yu-won, an 18-year-old Korean.
In an RPG he had played in the past, there was a mid-boss monster that summoned minions every turn. Instead of killing the boss, he had deliberately kept killing only the minions to farm massive amounts of experience points and items.
...That battle had lasted 37 hours.
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