Chapter 51: The Round Table

The world was indeed an absurd place. Just because he had been born without strength and wasn’t blessed with powerful parents, he wasn’t able to do anything he wanted. So although it seemed as though it was a world equal for everyone and gave everyone the same opportunities, that was just a story larked on by people with unblemished hands who had never experienced the world's cruelty.

He had done many things and worked himself near death.

‘Wouldn’t things get better if I keep trying?’

‘Soon, a better world will come.’

He had heard those words of comfort and support from the people around him, but in the end, none of them had ever seen the rise of a better world. Instead, they just died, waiting for a glimpse of what would never come.

That was reality.

Unless one was born as a Hunter, one would live and die as a slave. It was said that revolutions and reforms had taken place in the distant past through rebellion or uprisings, but that wasn’t a valid option for non-Hunters.

‘You want us to face the Hunters…?’

After all, Hunters had power that clearly couldn’t be compared to ordinary people. So even if the common people fought against them in swarms, they were just like moths leaping into a magnificent flame.

Those who had tried to resist by going on strikes or through other various means were all dealt with mercilessly.

‘They all died.’

For those who had already obtained power enough to be called gods, the ordinary people were only kept alive simply out of necessity. It was nothing more or nothing less.

Rather…

‘They considered us an easily replaceable workforce.’

For the Hunters who conquered gates and reached out to other dimensions, the ordinary people soon began to lose recognition as even a workforce. Some of the more sympathetic Hunters “convinced” the common people by using excuses like that they had come from the same place or that some of their fellow Hunters had parents that were also ordinary people. Thus the people stayed, continuing their slavelike lives.

And he was one of them too. One of the enslaved ordinary people.

He didn’t want to remember those memories. But, no, he had to remember these memories. The decade plus that he had lived like that had been compressed and engraved in his mind, and that included the book of the Demon King, which he had read hundreds of thousands of times.

“M… Mr. Lee!” Jeong In-Chang shouted without even wiping away his drool; the man had clearly been sleeping. Lee Jun-Kyeong ignored him and looked around.

‘This doesn’t seem to be a hospital.’

He was in a room full of colorful yet luxurious decorations, and he looked down at the gigantic bed he found himself in.

“What a relief. It really is such a relief!” Jeong In-Chang shouted at Lee Jun-Kyeong.

"Uh..."

Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to talk to Jeong In-Chang, who sat by his side while crying. However, for some reason, he couldn’t make a sound. Lee Jun-Kyeong frowned at the dry crackly feeling and the pain that followed.

Jeong In-Chang noticed his pain and handed him a glass of water that had sat to the side and said, “Your body is most likely a mess… Drink this for now. I’ll go call the others over.”

"Uh..."

Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to say something, but he once again couldn’t make a sound.

Bang!

The large door closed as soon as it opened, and suddenly, Lee Jun-Kyeong found himself alone in the room once more. Although he was still dazed, he still wanted to ask the question.

‘Where am I?’

However, he now knew the answer after looking at the closed door. There were two swords hung on the wall of the closed room and a round table in the shape of a circular shield.

He knew where he was.

'It’s the Round Table Council.'

***

Not all of the powerful Hunters formed secret organizations and tried to control the world from the shadows. There were those who formed groups truly out of noble intentions and worked behind the scenes for the betterment of the world.

The Round Table was one of them.

This secret organization existed in England, and it held as much power as the secret organizations that had formed out of their selfish interests. However, even though they had great power, they only had one fundamental goal: England’s survival.

‘They didn’t do much though.’

A while back, an incredibly powerful gate had appeared in England. Due to the nature of Europe’s reliance on Olympus, England had commissioned Olympus to raid the gate.

However…

Zeus refused.

As such, England eventually suffered an incredible catastrophe due to the unraided Gate Break. The British Hunters thought that if things continued this way, then their lives and deaths would be hinged upon the whim of another, then their lives would be decided by the whims of another and there would be no future left for them.

‘And what they made, later on, was the Round Table.’

British Hunters who were on expeditions abroad or belonged to other secret organizations began to return home to their motherland. However, there was no clear leader among them. Instead, they continued with their respective activities in a disorganized manner, and things began to progress as they had before without much change.

Then, a power Hunter was born and became the focal point around which they could gather, and the Round Table had formed. However, they did nothing even after becoming an organization with great strength.

It was only when England faced crises that threatened to destroy it that they would emerge and secretly handle the crises. Even though England’s dependence on Olympus had decreased more and more thanks to their backing…

‘These fools.’

…they were still incredibly stupid and short-sighted. After all, they refused to even try to change the status quo of the world with their great power.

Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped himself from sneering at them for a moment.

If that were the only beef he had with them, then there wouldn’t have been a reason to insult them as they weren’t obligated to change the world. However, they literally only emerged when England was on the verge of destruction. Whether it was crises in other countries, mild and non-disaster level catastrophes in their own country, or even anything they felt was beneath them and insignificant, they would hide themselves and, as always, only focus on secretly conducting their own activities.

Their own citizens—no, their fellow humans were dying left and right, and yet they ignored all of that.

‘There’s nothing else about them.'

However, it needed to be said that the only information that Lee Jun-Kyeong had about them was through the book of the Demon King, so he was only exposed to their organization's problems. So, it wasn’t as if he had any first-hand or accurate information or knowledge.

‘I guess I’ll find out for myself.’

Jeong In-Chang had gone to call the others over, but he hadn’t returned for a long time. Although it seemed clear that he had run into a problem, Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t worried that it would develop into a big deal in this place. Instead, he stopped looking around at his surroundings and inspected his body.

‘What a mess.’

He didn’t have to look closely. Nothing was normal, whether it was the creaking body, the lack of a voice, or even his legs that wouldn’t move, even if he tried to stand up.

‘Hyeon-Mu.’

Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to check on Hyeon-Mu's condition as well.

[The Familiar is asleep.]

Unfortunately, all he received in response was a notification that his familiar was asleep.

To think his Familiar had fallen asleep…

Familiars likely didn’t sleep the way humans did. Lee Jun-Kyeong had a hunch as to what the notification message was referring to, but if it was what he was thinking about, he felt as though there was no need for him to bother Hyeon-Mu forcefully.

The last thing that Lee Jun-Kyeong, who couldn’t move or speak, could do was use some numerical values to describe his current condition.

‘Status Window.’

A blue window appeared in front of Lee Jun-Kyeong.

[If, by chance, there is someone with the same ability as me, I hope that you don’t develop a dependence on the status window.]

Lee Jun-Kyeong didn't look at the status window very often because the Demon King had given some advice. In fact, the sentences he had written were like a representation of his regrets.

As long as one hunted monsters to level up, their stats would grow accordingly. The point of the ability was to become stronger through one’s own efforts rather than relying on a vague promise of sponsorship from one’s Sponsor.

And, there was one other part.

‘The stats and the attributes you have are replaced with values.’

This was another advantage that the Player had over the rest: objectivity.

As all of one’s attributes had been replaced with stat values, it was easy to read at a glance and to gauge the overall strength.

But, this ended up becoming a weakness for the Demon King.

‘I became so dependent on the values that I had come to believe that the values were absolute.’

It was better to regard the values as a convenient way to gauge his skill. While it was okay to consider the numerical value the status window offered as absolute within the lower levels of the attributes, as the values of the attributes increased, the more difficult it became to guarantee invincibility as a power.

There were many ways to go beyond the simple values assigned to attributes, such as the level of manipulation of the body or the presence or absence of skills alongside them.

‘There’s also the question of whether or not one is even able to use the stats properly.’

In fact, there were many cases where someone with an attribute value of more than a hundred lost out in comparison to someone who had a value considerably lower. That was why the Demon King had developed the mana stream.

In addition…

‘You shouldn’t trust the skill levels either.’

For example, one couldn’t judge the power of Reign of Fire just because its level was at a measly 3. One had to look at the circumstances around them, the potential of the skill, etc. At any time, a skill’s ability to perform could be different.

Therefore…

‘Stay away from the status window.’

That was the advice that the Demon King had written for him. In short, the status window could end up limiting one’s potential in the end.

One could believe that what they saw would be all they could amount to. However, Lee Jun-Kyeong stayed away from the status window just as the Demon King advised because the status window could end up becoming his ceiling rather than a reference of measurement.

However…

‘This is…’

When he looked at the blue window in front of him, Lee Jun-Kyeong wanted to ignore all that. It was an exquisite and delicious fruit, and it was the reward for the effort he had put in, sitting right in front of him.

[Lee Jun-Kyeong]

[Special Ability: Player]

[Sponsor: ]

[Level: 51, Strength: 54 (140), Agility: 60 (164), Stamina: 18 (159), Mana: 120 (200)]

[Authorities: Reign of Fire Lv 7]

[Familiars: Hyeon-Mu (Asleep), A Skull that Contains Souls (disabled)]

His level had reached over 50. In contrast, his stats seemed to have fallen far below what they had been before.

'Is it a side effect?'

He was probably in a state of being temporarily weakened due to his injuries, combined with the effects of the dragon’s bloodstone and the red ore. His stats would have been the values within the parentheses if he had been in a normal state.

'I'm speechless.'

It was an overwhelming increase in stats. Even though he knew he had put in a ridiculous amount of effort, the fruit it had produced was greater than expected. Furthermore, the level of Reign of Fire had also risen, and the status window also displayed that Hyeon-Mu was asleep.

However, above all else, another pane had appeared below the status pane.

‘The Skill Window appeared.’

It had a name he hadn’t been able to see until now.

[Skill Window]

He finally had another section added to his status window, and surprisingly it was full of high-level passive skills.

[Demonic Mana Resistance Lv2, Purification Lv3, Harmony Lv1, Regeneration Lv1]

- Demonic Mana Resistance: Increases resistance to Demonic Mana.

- Purification: Purifies demonic mana and other related things.

- Harmony: Coordinates different forces.

- Regeneration: Increases the body's restorative power to the limit.

All of these skills were comparable to unique-grade skills.

“T… thank…”

‘Thank you, and I’m sorry for disdaining you until now.

?Mr. , please take care of me from now on.’

Then, he started to see some blurry but distinctly forming letters in front of his eyes just as he was expressing his praises for his Sponsor.

[Mana Stream Lv 1 (This is a power that you have created on your own. There is no limit to the growth it can receive based on your own efforts.)]

Looking at it, Lee Jun-Kyeong felt a surge of joy.

***

After a very long time, Jeong In-Chang returned. With him was someone that Lee Jun-Kyeong was delighted to see: Yeo Seong-Gu

“How are you feeling?” the bald man asked.

“Hy…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong wanted to say a greeting, but his body wasn’t ready for it yet. Yeo Seong-Gu looked over at him with eyes full of pity.

“Now that you’ve awoken, you’ll definitely… be able to recover soon.”

There was a hint of anxiety in his voice.

“They said that the erosion from the demonic mana had already started.”

He soon continued with a hardened expression.

“There are so few cases regarding erosion from demonic mana that they say there is no established treatment or solution.”

He was right. There was no other choice for the affected Hunter besides overcoming the demonic mana on their own. Occasionally, there were cases of Hunters being inflicted with demonic mana by monsters who could manipulate it. The demonic mana that penetrated into the body of Hunters was like a deadly poison, and most of them ended up being killed by the erosion the demonic mana caused on their bodies.

Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to nod toward him as if he was signaling Yeo Seong-Gu not to worry. Thanks to his amazing Sponsor, he had intuited that it was probably not going to be difficult to drive away the erosion of the demonic mana.

‘There’s also the mana stream.’

In addition, he had a skill that could manage and manipulate the flow of mana. With that, it should be possible for him to increase his demonic mana resistance further.

“That’s a relief,” Yeo Seong-Gu said as he nodded as if he had understood what Lee Jun-Kyeong was trying to convey with his expression. He looked over at Jeong In-Chang for a moment, seemingly asking for some privacy. Then, Jeong In-Chang immediately left the room again after he caught on.

Yeo Seong-Gu sat at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s bedside and looked over at him before he finally said, “Try to heal as quickly as possible. We’ll deal with your questions after you get better.”

Having said that, he stood up and…

“You may not know what this is yet, but a Round Table Council is being held here right now. The agenda for the meeting is about you and Heracles…”

…his expression became even more grim compared to before.

"...it's about the war between Olympus and Asgard."

1. Chapter 30 has the most recent status window, and we will have a compiled list of status window references in the main page.