Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Divinity (3)

Since Cataclysm, item appraisers have been one of the most important support classes.

While there are only a few appraisal skills, if an appraiser’s level is low, they can often miss an item’s stats or fail to interpret a special ability.

In that sense, it’s no exaggeration to say that Firebird Guild’s appraiser Kang Sun-woo is one of the best appraisers in the country.

As he appraises the miraculous rice in front of him, he is both thrilled and disappointed with the results.

‘The rice that was forced to grow by magic has toxins and is inedible for humans. Even hunters have to wash their stomachs after eating it a few times.’

That’s how nature works. It demanded due process, and it needed time.

Even with the development of things like printed food and palm farms, they can’t completely replace the existing food system.

So it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the golden field and disappointed by the results.

“Let’s get started.”

He stacks the rice and begins to analyze it, his eyes glowing with magic and revealing one element after another.

[Results].

“Huh?”

[Blessed Rice]

◆ Rating: Rare

Description: Rice blessed with the divine power of Goddess Demera, the goddess of life and fertility.

Alleviates grade 3 diseases and if consumed continuously, there is a high probability of being cured.

“Eh?”

He panted, checking the message in front of him.

With the advent of potions and elixirs after the Cataclysm, recovery items, diseases, and injuries had also begun to be graded intuitively.

Grade 3 diseases included most neurological conditions and even early-stage cancers.

‘This rice cures cancer? All of this rice? Isn’t that better than the expensive cures in the tower?’

“The test results are in!”

He couldn’t wait to introduce this amazing miracle crop to everyone.

“The appraisal result is Rare!”

“Huh?”

“Each and every one of these rice is a rare grade!”

Everyone was stunned by Kang’s words, and some didn’t understand what he was talking about. It sounded too unrealistic. But when he said that this rice can even cure cancer, everyone’s minds were blown.

“Is it true?”

“It’s true!”

Ha-ri couldn’t keep her mouth shut, but she turned to Leon who was talking to a straw puppet imbued with Demera’s divinity, as if he didn’t need to listen.

“Your Majesty!”

“Insolence! This king, a priest, is talking to a goddess!”

“I’m sorry, I have committed a sin worthy of death!”

[It’s all right, how can a mere mortal know how to treat a goddess?]

The voice was merciful like when she heard Leon’s voice at the Black Gate, and it had encouraged her, and she felt warm inside just hearing it.

“Since Demera says so, I will forgive you this one time.”

“Yes…….”

She bowed her flat head and looked at the two of them. The straw doll was becoming limp.

“I think I’ve done my part now, and I’ll go back to sleep.”

“Thank you. The grace of the Earth Mother Goddess, I will always swallow it sweetly.”

[Ah, this mother has one last nagging word.]

The divine voice sounded strained, as if it had suddenly lost its strength. Inhabiting the doll, she spoke to her champion one last time.

[Don’t go off and starve.]

With that, the straw doll collapsed and Leon closed his eyes and reflected on the Earth Mother’s grace.

After what seemed like an eternity, the flat-faced Ha-ri cautiously raised her head.

“That…Your Majesty? What is this…….?”

“Divinity.”

“Divinity…what do you mean?”

“Are there no gods in this world?”

Ha-ri didn’t know how to answer Leon’s question.

Of course there are religions on Earth. Jehovah, Allah, Buddha… Isn’t Buddha a god? Whatever.

Religion exists but she’d be careful about saying that God exists.

Sure, religious people will say that God exists, but whether they can prove that God is real, as they just witnessed, is another matter.

The gods of Earth’s religions claim to be real only in their doctrines, not in their miracles, as Leon demonstrated.

“Well… I don’t know.”

“This is divinity, a pantheon of burdens. The right life and world is one of harmony with the divine, and you Earthlings should follow suit.”

Han Ha-ri wondered if that was even possible.

The Earth was already in the grip of the established religions. Their exclusivity toward other religions is understandable.

Even relatively mild-mannered Protestants enter other people’s temples on fictional holidays, trampling on the ground and desecrating shrines.

But what’s in front of them was a real God demonstrating a miracle.

Ha-ri feels a strange sense of trust in this strange, anachronistic king.

Could they…could they really have brought someone so extraordinary through the gates that he would change the world?

“Cut the rice! Bow in gratitude to Demera and let the crop fulfill its rightful role!”

Leon had them cook rice from the blessed rice that sprouted in the middle of the Hunan Plains. There were three hours left before the Firebird Guild’s right to capture the Hunan Plains Gate expired.

* * * *

“No way.”

Kim Jin-soo swallowed hard as he looked at the system message that flashed before his eyes.

[Cooked blessed rice]

The fact that steaming white rice appeared in the Awakened system window was bizarre, but the information the appraisal showed was shocking.

-100 health regeneration per minute.

-50 mana regeneration per minute.

-Duration: 8 hours.

“Crazy…….”

He couldn’t believe that rice gave a buff, and even then, the effect was massive.

“This is almost like a passive buff.”

This was exactly what he expected from a 3 million won per bottle potion that didn’t perform horribly for the price.

Ha-ri approached with a mouth full of pork belly on air rice.

“Eat and tell me how you feel.”

Ha-ri swallowed hard and finally spoke.

“Chief, chief, this is awesome…….”

“What is it?”

“It… stacks.”

“What?!”

Kim Jin-soo’s ears perked up.

“I’m just curious… Have you ever eaten bugs that grew in a rice field besides rice?”

“Worms?”

Quick, how could she think of eating a worm?

“I ate them and they… nested.”

“Really?!”

Kim Jin-soo was dumbfounded, but he looked toward the rice paddies.

Not only rice grows in the paddy field. There are deer worms that nibble on the growing rice and insects that feed on it.

If that blessing is an area-wide blessing for the entire land… it wouldn’t be strange if all life was blessed, not just the rice.

Greed burned in the eyes of the hunters who were about to enter the gate.

They risked their lives to capture the gate and although government hunters were given a minimal amount of enhancements, it was minimal.

For a salaryman, a few million won in enhancements is a last resort. But now there were free buffs everywhere. It was like eating bugs.

“Come on, get one! Get one more!”

Hunters armed with armor and swords scrambled through the rice paddies.

“It stacks up to three times…….”

The momentum of the Association Hunters soared before the raid.

* * * *

“Guild Leader…are you okay?”

The Vice Guild Leader looked at Lee Yong-wan and asked as everything was disrupted by the appearance of the survivor named Leon.

“…….”

Of course he couldn’t be okay.

The Firebird Guild had deliberately induced the dungeon break, and they were prepared to bleed.

As a top ten guild, they couldn’t be openly hostile, but they were likely to be treated differently than other top ten guilds.

In particular, they would be excluded from the most lucrative high grade scarlet gates and above for the time being.

‘Damn it, where did that bastard come from?’

Yong-wan glared at Leon, who was still meditating with his eyes closed.

‘It’s him. That survivor ruined everything. If it weren’t for him, the crippled government would have been forced to give in to our demands.’

He wished that Leon would die in the gate.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, Yong-wan remembered the gate he had been wandering around for days.

“Hmph… This isn’t so bad.”

“Vice Guild Leader?”

“Don’t worry about it, but we have a gate to close at the end.”

“That’s right, I was a bit… out of shape in the middle, but… Ah!”

The Vice Guild Leader who had attacked the scarlet gate with him had the same expression on his face when he read Yong-wan’s intentions.

“There’s only one A-rank hunter, huh?”

If so, the result was obvious. That gate boss would never be defeated by the Hunter Association’s floaters.

“But if there’s a survivor of that…….”

“He’s a tough nut to crack, even for me. He’s a Buffer, with a blessing on the land. They say he’s the king, so he can’t be much of a fighter.”

Either way, the conclusion is the same.

Gate strategies are not for nothing. You need to understand the concept of the gate and prepare accordingly.

They will never be able to defeat the boss of that gate and if they can’t defeat the boss, they can’t close the gate.

Two twisted smiles greeted the Association raiders as they departed in search of a way to die.

* * * *

Leon had a vague idea of what a gate capture was.

Every gate revolves around a mission, and by clearing that mission, you can close the gate… That is, get rid of the gate.

“Most of them have a boss mob… no, a boss, and defeating it will often close the gate.”

“Hmm… a diary of boss encounters. I like that.”

“Ah…….”

Ha-ri didn’t know how to answer so she remained silent.

“I’ve heard that those birds have been attacked before, but there are quite a few monsters, aren’t there?”

Leon said, looking at Kim Jin-soo and the Association Hunters fighting at the front as skeletons had been charging at them from the gate, armed with swords and shields.

“That’s a feature of this gate.”

“A feature?”

“Yes…In most gates the total number of monsters can be reduced but in special cases, such as skeletons, zombies… demons…they respawn indefinitely as long as the boss monster remains intact.”

“I see, so it will only end when the boss is defeated, I understand.”

Ha-ri guessed that this was a command gate and that there would be a commander controlling the skeletons.

Kim Jin-soo thought so too, and as a rule of thumb, the odds were in their favor.

“If there’s a high probability, does that mean that other things will appear with a low probability?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Yes. For example…a very powerful commander.”

Just as Han Ha-ri was about to explain more.

-Kii-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-i–!

A bizarre ringing sound that seemed to tear at the eardrums was heard.

“What?”

Chief Kim Jin-soo and Deputy Han Ha-ri turned pale. The other Association Hunters did the same.

“Lee Yong-wan, you son of a bitch, why didn’t you tell me that!”

[Dungeon break begins.]

-You are sentenced to death. The time limit for all life within the gate begins.

-Commander Knight Dulahan advances with his army.

-Defeat Commander Dulahan. Time remaining: 3 hours 00 minutes

From the beginning of the dungeon break the entire army has begun to march toward the capture point.