[If you agree to become the Serpent Bearer’s Zodiac Saint, pull on the handle.]

Hugo was serious as his hand headed toward the handle. He tried to pull on the dagger’s hilt, but he didn’t unsheathe all the way.

Sssrk!

As the dagger was halfway unsheathed, something surprising happened.

[The desperate Sagittarius has opened the door to its treasure room.]

[It is distributing more treasures of the sun.]

[It declares it will significantly lower the criteria even for the civilians!]

[Please do not go! It shouts.]

Hugo grinned. He had merely unsheathed the dagger halfway, yet gained so many rewards! In an excellent mood, he watched more and more items stack next to him.

Satisfied by the reaction, Hugo sheathed the dagger once again, and the Sagittarius responded to this.

[The relieved Sagittarius has closed the door to its treasure room.]

[It is discreetly taking back a couple of items it dished out.]

[As expected, there is no way its Zodiac Saint would betray it. It has praised itself.]

The laughter on Hugo’s face disappeared when he saw several of the more expensive items disappear.

Sssrk!

He unsheathed the dagger halfway once again, and the items that went away returned. The flame above Hugo’s head became desperate.

[It claims it will give all the items to Hugo.]

[The items that the Sagittarius was about to take have been returned.]

[The entrance criteria will be entirely up to Hugo for now.]

[Bewitchment Medicine(Divine rank) has come down.]

[Musical Instrument(Divine rank) has come down.]

[Aphrodisiac(Divine rank) has come down.]

[Half-eaten Cookie(Divine rank) has come down.]

[Bow(Myth rank) has come down.]

[Gloves(Myth rank) have come down.]

[Used Music Enhancement Pill(Divine rank) has come down]

[It wants you to ask for whatever you want.]

Yes. This is how it should be.

Hugo sheathed the dagger. The nervous flame seemed to have finally calmed down a bit. Of course, that pile of items contained many useless ones, but it had been a while since Hugo had received presents like this.

‘No. I’ve never received anything before.’

His Zodiac was a narcissist and a miser. Hugo saw himself as one of the most loyal servants amongst the Zodiac Saints, yet he had never received anything in return.

‘The others have to do nothing to get stuff!’

Of course, Kevin had suffered a lot while serving the Virgo, but he had good-looking women as servants. Moreover, the clothes he wore were always expensive and nice. In fact, he changed clothes multiple times in a day, and all of these clothes cost tens of thousands of dollars.

‘I only have one suit!’

Then there was Stevens. He was a mere cat, yet his Zodiac gifted him several impressive gardens and lands.

The Cancer Saint was rich in terms of cars and real estate. What about Heiji? The Gemini took care of Heiji. Heiji didn’t need to sleep, and she didn’t get old. She could retain her beauty and supple skin. One didn’t even need to mention what Yang Wei possessed as the Zodiac Saint of wealth.

What was Hugo compared to them?

‘I was barely able to buy a car by financing it!’

When Hugo had accomplished a huge achievement, his Zodiac had merely given him a healing juice and a lyre performance as a job well done! Of course, Hugo received gold if his Zodiac was in a good mood, but that gold was merely the size of a piece of chocolate!

‘If it weren’t for the monsters, I would’ve broken that contract.’

Of course, Hugo wasn’t kidnapped like Kevin when the latter was about to spend a night with his first girlfriend. Still, this didn’t change that Hugo had also been kidnapped unfairly. Moreover, when he had asked why his Zodiac had picked him, the Sagittarius answered that Hugo’s face was the best amongst the awakened beings.

This didn’t matter in the end.

Items appeared whenever he tried to unsheathe the dagger. A wicked smile appeared on his lips.

‘This is fun.’

Hugo had unexpectedly found a way to threaten his Zodiac, and it felt great. However, his antics lasted just a moment. Hugo merely unsheathed the dagger halfway and stopped there. It was true that he was tempted to join the thirteenth temple.

‘However, a Zodiac Saint shouldn’t go to a different temple.’

He was the leader of the Sagittarius temple and was responsible for feeding an upwards of fifty members. Therefore, he planned to sheathe the dagger once again.

‘I can’t betray the Zodiac I once worshiped...’

Before he could do that...

Bbah-gahk!

“?!”

Hugo let out a scream.

“Ahhhk!!”

The head of a monster suddenly came flying like a cannonball and hit his hand, making him unintentionally unsheathe the dagger!

“Ahhhhhhk!”

Screaming, Hugo looked in the direction the head had come from. The sight of Lee Gun standing there left him speechless.

Lee Gun had a harsh expression since his friend was taking his time unsheathing the dagger. After killing the monster, he had kicked the monster’s head like a soccer ball.

Lee Gun had done his best to give Hugo a choice, but he wanted Hugo to quickly unsheathe the dagger. His expression said Hugo shouldn’t even think about turning down the offer and wriggling out of this.

This bewildered Hugo!

‘That bastard is always ill-tempered!’

A green light appeared in the sky.

[Candidate “Hugo Otis” has unsheathed the Serpent Bearer’s Badge.]

[You have accepted the Serpent Bearer’s Zodiac Saint position.]

Hugo freaked out as he screamed. “No! This isn’t what I wanted!”

However, his words fell on deaf ears as the green light surged up from his feet. The red energy surrounding Hugo seemed shocked.

[The Sagittarius says this wasn’t supposed to happen.]

[This should have never happened. It is raging toward the Serpent Bearer.]

[The Sagittarius argues this isn’t normal procedure.]

The green light went up Hugo’s legs and wound itself around his arms.

When the Serpent Bearer’s tattoo appeared on his wrist, Hugo got alarmed. “Ahhk! No! This isn’t it!”

At that moment...

“Don’t get distracted, Archer!”

“?!”

The Virgo Saint Kevin appeared next to him.

Startled by his sudden appearance, Hugo asked, “Kevin! Why are you here?”

“Shut up! The reason I’m here isn’t important!”

“What?”

“You’re being cheap again! You again received something from Lee Gun! You reek of the Serpent Bearer’s energy!”

He didn’t receive anything! The baffled Hugo was about to retort.

Kahng!

However, monsters revealed themselves as they pushed through the ground. These three-meter tall monsters looked like aliens! They looked similar to the Constructs under Hailey. Their bodies resembled that of humans. However, they didn’t have faces or eyes. They had skull-like facial structures, and their mouths were open with their teeth in full view. However, something was more chilling than their disgusting outer appearances.

“We can’t kill them! Their abilities are on par with the Constructs!”

An upset voice rang behind them. It was Stevens. He ground his teeth as he retrieved the corpses of his subordinates. “Their stats are higher than the red zone monsters! The holy ground’s barrier is blocking them from going to the city, but it won’t last long!”

As if he agreed with the Leo Saint’s assessment, Kevin brought up his sword. “Their levels are too high to fight, even for us Zodiac Saints. We have to seal them.”

This seemed to be the reason for Kevin being here. He had come looking for the other Zodiac Saints to use the Sealing skill that only the Saint-ranks could use.

However, Hugo disagreed with Kevin. “Even if we seal them, they’ll wake up someday! The ground will get polluted too!”

“We have no choice right now! We can’t kill them with our power!”

Hugo looked resigned. He was about to raise his bow when...

“Dad! Look out!”

“!”

Hugo quickly turned at his children’s shouts. Monsters were rushing his back. Even in his surprised state, Hugo quickly shot his arrows.

Ting!

“?!”

The arrows disappeared in flight and ceased to exist.

This surprised Kevin and Stevens.

“That idiot!”

The monsters rushed the flustered Hugo. The Archer Saint didn’t even have time to wonder why his arrows had disappeared.

[You have become the Serpent Bearer’s Zodiac Saint. The Sagittarius’s power is being swapped out, so you won’t be able to use your power for a short period. Please be a bit patient!]

The voice made Hugo angry. “Ahhk!! Really!”

He really wanted to kill Lee Gun! How dare Lee Gun force him to unsheathe the badge!

In the end, Hugo got surrounded. He quickly grabbed the bow like an ax. Sometimes you just have to do with what you’ve got!

Stevens and Kevin cursed when they saw the Archer Saint use the bow like a melee weapon.

“He is merely the last-place Zodiac Saint!”

When it came to close-combat fight against monsters, they were the strongest, yet even they were incapable of damaging these monsters.

“Archer! Do you want to get crippled?”

“You can’t get close to them!”

Pah-gahk!!!

“!!”

As the monsters attacked, the sound of bones being crushed rang out.

Stevens and Kevin despaired.

“That idiot...”

However, odd expressions soon appeared on their faces as they continued to watch the scene.

“...?!”

This was to be expected since the one that had his body destroyed wasn’t Hugo. It was the monsters. Hugo was beating his opponents by swinging his bow!

Chun Sungjae’s expression was a sight to behold.

Of course, the person most surprised at this was Hugo himself. ‘What the hell is this power?’

He had hit a monster with high defense, yet his arms didn’t hurt at all.

‘What happened?’

This hadn’t happened even when he had received 100% power from the Sagittarius! However, he didn’t even have time to think.

“Kee-ehhk!!”

“Koohk!”

When another monster appeared, Hugo brought his bow down again.

Kwah-jeek!

“Kee-ehhk!”

Whenever Hugo brought down his bow, the enemies screamed as they fell.

This left the Zodiac Saints baffled as they looked at Hugo. An archer swinging a bow like an ax! It was an absurd sight.

“They didn’t budge when we attacked them!”

“It just took one blow from him...”

Then there was his power and speed! They had no choice but to get surprised.

‘He’s strong.’

He was stronger than them! Of course, Hugo hadn’t been weak in the first place, but he was at a different level right now.

‘He’s beyond the level of Zodiac Saints!’

This wasn’t the only surprising part.

[Connection complete! You can receive power from the Serpent Bearer.]

“!”

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Accompanying the voice, a green light erupted from him.

Hugo let out a vicious laugh when magical energy once again appeared from the bow.

As if he had been waiting for this moment, he quickly backed off and used his sharp eyes to aim. Gathering his magical energy, he shot his arrow like usual.

Pahng!!

The arrow flew through the air like a laser beam! An incredible flash of light resonated, and an explosion erupted.

Kwahng!!

Faced with this destructive capability, no one could keep themselves steady.

“Koo-oohk...!!!”

The Chun siblings, as well as the Zodiac Saints, were almost sent flying.

[An enormous amount of contribution has been sent to the Serpent Bearer.]

When the flash of light dissipated, the sight surprised everyone.

“What... what the hell is that?”

All the large enemies were gone. To be precise, their bodies were broken into so many pieces that their original shape couldn’t be recognized.

It baffled Kevin and Stevens.

“This isn’t the power of a Construct!”

“What the hell did he do?”

The disciples’ mouths had fallen open too.

However, Hugo was once again overcome with emotions. ‘This is to be expected of the Serpent Bearer.’

Its power was on a different level. Hugo knew the Serpent Bearer was someone respectable, but he never expected it to have this much power!

[Your faith has increased by a massive amount.]

[Would you like to use the power of the Serpent Bearer again?]

As Hugo became enticed by those words...

Woosh!

Flames erupted from his arm. It was the power of the Sagittarius. This power had disappeared for a moment after the Serpent Bearer’s power had pushed it aside.

[The Sagittarius has desperately placed blessings on you.]

[Sun’s Protection(SSS)]

...

[Sun’s Concentration(SSS)]

[Sun’s Power(SSS)]

The Zodiac placed all kinds of buff spells on Hugo, leaving Stevens’ and Kevin’s jaws on the floor.

This was to be expected.

‘Those are the highest-ranked skills that one has to pay a price to acquire!’

The Sagittarius didn’t seem to care as the flames surged higher.

[It doesn’t need any payment for the skills.]

[The Sagittarius has stated that the Serpent Bearer is a new Zodiac, so it doesn’t have any battle skills. The Sagittarius desperately yells the strength of its temple.]

[It states this is a forced contract. It desperately makes a case that the Serpent Bearer’s power will disappear soon.]

Hugo accepted the words of his Zodiac. He hadn’t chosen the new Zodiac through his own will, so this power seemed to be temporary.

[The Sagittarius requests you to reject the power of the Serpent Bearer right now.]

However, Hugo ignored the voice. He was thankful for the buffs, but at this moment, he possessed Lee Gun-rank power, which was a cheat. His current situation was tens of thousands of times better than serving the narcissist Zodiac.

Therefore, Hugo quickly turned his head. “Great! I’ll be able to help Gun with this—”

“What help? It’s already done, idiot.”

“?!”

The heavens reverberated as the ground shook.

Boom!!

The bisected corpse fell in front of him. It was the three-hundred-meter-tall monster that Lee Gun had gone to kill.

Lee Gun landed on top of the corpse.

[Your EXP has skyrocketed from the Zodiac Saint buff.]

Hugo stared at Lee Gun in horror.

Lee Gun ignored him as he spat out the blood in his mouth. ‘The black zone rank monsters are strong.’

However, they weren’t strong enough to use the items he had acquired from the Zodiac.

‘My power went up thanks to Taeksoo’s contribution.’

The contribution sent by Sungjae and Yooha was significant, but they couldn’t be compared to a Zodiac Saint.

‘My EXP went up too.’

Moreover, the difference between a temple that didn’t possess a Zodiac Saint and a temple with one was huge.

‘I can see why the Sagittarius doesn’t want its Zodiac Saint stolen.’

Well, that didn’t matter since this was temporary.

[This is a faulty contract.]

[After one week, the temporary Zodiac Saint contract will be released.]

Lee Gun laughed in contempt. ‘How do I make that power mine?’

However, he wasn’t too worried about it.

[Another person qualified to become the Zodiac has been found.]

[Current number of candidates for the Zodiac Saint’s position: 3]

He didn’t know who it was, but another candidate for his Zodiac Saint had appeared.

At that moment, their surroundings became quiet. The disciples raised their guards as they looked past the horizon.

“Are there any more monsters that’ll show up?”

“It’s fine. Gun is a demon when it comes to sensing monsters. He would have already noticed if—”

At that moment.

“...!”

It was rare to see Lee Gun flinch. Lee Gun had been sent flying after receiving a hit from something.

Puh-uhk!

“Uncle!!”

“Lee Gun!”

This shocked everyone. There was no way a person could survive a hit that made such a sound.

However, Lee Gun was fine. Nevertheless, it was rare to see him scrunch up his face like this. He laughed in contempt.

[Warning! Monarch rank has appeared.]