Chapter 365. Revolution (4)

La Bella was alone in a white space like always while holding a scale in her hand. Their conversation went smoothly. Since Breakthrough was derived from La Bella’s the Core of Balance, it was an easy task for her to retrieve it. This was true for the tier as well. To go from gold to platinum, a hero needed to get through a total of four promotion tests. It was quite obvious that there was no need for Chi-Woo to take a promotion test. Although he had used most of his merits on the Kobalos’ magic fire pit, he still had his test exemptions. Starting from when he successfully raided the Hala Forest, he had more than enough exemptions to bypass four tests.

–Liber is currently full of heretics that are disturbing and disrupting the balance of the world.

A voice rang in the white space.

–Although they were born with the fate of mortals.

Her voice was low and clear.

–On the basis of being relatively more gifted than others.

Soft yet strong.

–They have broken the order of numerous worlds and are attempting to fulfill their desires using immoral means and methods.

–And sooner or later, their hands will reach here.

–Even in this last sanctuary that you and the others have managed to create…

La Bella trailed off, and she sounded bitter. She might be recalling the time when she was ousted from Liber. La Bella was able to protect her last sanctuary at the expense of her faithful followers. No, was it even accurate to say that they were able to protect it?

–…My child.

La Bella touched Chi-Woo’s head as he lowered it further.

–Let them know.

Suddenly, the voice in his ears became more intense.

–Show them and enlighten those arrogant beings.

–The order of the universe has been decided on its own, and it is by no means something that should be artificially constructed.

Chi-Woo followed her hand’s movement and slowly raised his head.

–As of this time, you will be promoted to platinum tier, and your class will upgrade to Inquisitor.

La Bella raised her scale high up.

–Carry out judgment to those arrogant heretics with your own hands and correct the world’s balance!

Chi-Woo’s vision went blank.

* * *

When Chi-Woo returned from the white space, he turned on the device and called forth his user information.

1. Name & Rank: Choi Chi-Woo (EX)

2. Sex & Age: Male & 23

3. Height & Weight: 180.5 & 73.5kg

4. Denomination: ‘The Goddess of Scales’ and ‘Guardian of Balance’, La Bella

5. Tier: Platinum IV6

6.Class: Exorcist → Monk → Advanced Exorcist → High-ranking Exorcist →Inquisitor

7. Heavenly Title: Three Lines

8. Disposition: Neutral

He was finally promoted to platinum tier, and his class changed as well to one suitable for his present situation.

[Strength B]

[Durability B]

[Agility B]

[Stamina B]

[Mental Fortitude B]

[Exorcism A]

As a perk for raising his tier, he could choose one of his physical attributes to raise; he thought hard between stamina and exorcism, but eventually chose exorcism. Originally, he would have chosen stamina since his brother emphasized over and over again the importance of stamina as the basis and foundation for strength. However, after acquiring Armed with the Sixth Element as his weapon, Chi-Woo’s thoughts changed. Considering that this weapon used exorcism mana as its nutrient, it would unleash greater power the higher his exorcism rank was. Thus, he chose to rank up his exorcism mana.

However, one surprising part was that the exorcism mana immediately jumped to rank A. According to his assistant’s words, it should have normally gone up to B+, but after considerable thought, he guessed that this might be the result of his training. Except when he really couldn’t help it, Chi-Woo had been training every single day until now. He had also been practicing purification breathing continuously every morning, noon, and evening. The training and experience he had piled up so far might have combined with his promotion perk and allowed him to skip a rank. Anyway, he finally got a rank A in his physical attributes.

His assistant had told him that in order for humans to achieve rank A, they needed to reach diamond tier at the least, but Chi-Woo was able to do it at platinum tier, the tier right before diamond. Although his progress could be considered rapid, he still felt that he was way too lacking. He needed to get much, much stronger than this. He needed to grow enough to look down on rank A. Of course, it wasn’t an easy task to move on to the next rank. To go from B to A, he needed to only go through B+, but it was different from rank A onwards.

[A → A+ → A++ → A+++ →AA → AAA → S → EX.]

[Since physical abilities are restricted by the limits of an individual’s species, they can’t be measured with the same standard as other miscellaneous abilities. Still, they are the same in one aspect.]

[Rank A means that you are an expert. And an expert is still human.]

[If you surpass rank A, you’ve surpassed the limits of a human.]

[The process of reaching this stage is extremely difficult and exhausting, and even among the chosen ones, who are extremely few in number, only a handful of them are able to reach this rank. You can no longer consider these people human anymore.]

[Thus, a person at rank S is a superhuman. Only those who surpassed human limits can reach this stage.]

To get from A to S, he needed to go over five ranks. Then he became curious. His exorcism mana became much more powerful after reaching rank A, so he wondered how it would feel when he finally reached rank S. Of course, raising one of his physical attributes wasn’t the only benefit of raising his tier.

His class ability also changed. Although there were options to strengthen his existing abilities, he chose to acquire a new one because he thought he needed different power to fight a new enemy.

1. [Choi Chi-Woo’s Original Exorcism Prayer C]

2. [La Bella’s Bible C]

3. [La Bella’s Sanctuary D]

4. [Executioner B] – the ability to carry out judgment as executors of religious trials. The prerequisite for this ability is to first designate a target as a heretic, and this ability can only be used in the space where ‘La Bella’s Bible’ and ‘La Bella’s Sanctuary’ have been activated. The opponent defined as a heretic in the space will be randomly executed, burned at the stake, or given other forms of divine punishment.

While the class abilities he had so far could be categorized as buffs that supported and lent strength to his allies, the ability that he gained this time was different. Although Original Exorcism Prayer and La Bella’s Sanctuary could be used to attack his enemy, it was only an indirect effect. Executioner, on the other hand, directly attacked his enemy as its name suggested; although he would only know the exact effect after using it in the real world.

‘All right. I’m done with the tier, so next.’ He wasn’t done upgrading yet, and Chi-Woo brought up his fostering information next.

[User Choi Chi-Woo’s Merit Count: 12,542,567]

When he arrived at Shalyh, the amount of merits he had was 12,642,567. He offered 100 merits when he was promoted from steel to bronze, and the amount he had to offer increased 10 fold after that. Therefore, his merits had decreased by 100,000 points after being promoted to platinum tier. So far, so good.

‘Wait, then does that mean if I want to reach diamond tier, I’ll have to give 1 million, and then 10 million for master, 100 million for grandmaster, and 1 billion for challenger…?’ Up to master was possibly doable, but if he wanted to aim for grandmaster and upwards, he needed a truly astronomical amount of merits if the math applied. Just thinking about it made his head hurt.

‘Come to think of it, I shouldn’t recklessly use merits anymore.’

What were the most valuable assets for heroes currently active on Liber? Was it power? Money? No, it was merit. All they needed was merit. The more merit they earned and offered, the more everything fell into place. Of course, heroes normally didn’t know exactly how many merits they had earned and could only guess roughly. However, it was different for Chi-Woo. La Bella had accepted his request before and displayed everything in exact numbers.

Using merits any way he wanted was okay until gold tier, the common peak that any hero could reach. If a hero wanted to aim for a higher tier, they needed to consider the appropriate way to use their merits. However, it was still too early for Chi-Woo to be overly concerned about this. Since a new enemy had appeared, he could gain even more merits than before. Anyway, the amount of merits he had at his disposal was about 10 million; it was not a lot, but nothing to sneeze at either. It was a pretty fair amount for catching two great demons who didn’t seem to be very high up on the hierarchy. However, considering the fact that he had just raided a strategic location for the Demon Empire, the amount seemed roughly correct.

‘Still, it’s a bit strange?’ The calculation seemed off because he should have also gotten merits for acquiring the toharis. If he included that in the calculation, it felt as if he had gotten too little merit. The only explanation would be that the toharis didn’t have much impact on Liber’s main flow. However, that seemed unlikely considering what his brother and Mamiya had said.

‘What?’ At that moment, Chi-Woo’s eyes widened when he looked at the text in the air again.

[User Choi Chi-Woo’s Merit Count: 12,543,567]

‘What happened?’ His merit increased. It had definitely been 12,542,567 a moment ago, but it went up by 1,000 in a very short time. It was not much, but it definitely went up. Chi-Woo tilted his head, thinking he might have been mistaken. Then he closed his eyes tightly and opened them again. Once more, he couldn’t help but stare at the number in the air.

[User Choi Chi-Woo’s Merit Count: 12,545,567]

…Huh? It went up by 2,000 this time? In seconds? In real time? Something like this had happened before, of course, but the rise hadn’t been this significant, and it stopped before he could confirm it.

“What, what is happening?” Chi-Woo was flustered. He was so shocked that he asked out loud. The mysterious increase in merits was still continuing even now. Every time he blinked, his merit jumped up. What the hell was going on?

Chi-Woo soon found out.

* * *

Before Chi-Woo came back, the buhguhbus had lived each day in fear. Or to be more precise, the buhguhbus sent to Seven Stars as assistants to help Yeriel had been under constant terror. If asked why, they’d all say that it was because of the crazy bitch’s temperament that they had to work with. From the outside, she looked all right. She had a cute and pretty face, and although she spoke roughly sometimes, she was overall well-mannered.

“Hello? Have you slept well? Did you find anything inconvenient? If you haven’t eaten, would you like to join us?” She would smile while talking softly like this, but as soon as they entered the workshop—

“Shit—fucking hell!” She would kick equipment and tools like a soccer ball and became hysterical.

“What’s the point of having materials and fire!”

“What the fuck? I have to prove my worth? You fucking bitch! I’ll only be able to do something after I get my powers back!”

Sometimes she banged on the desk in anger and cried, “My alloy! My configuration memories! My sorcery anvil! When is he coming baaaaaack!” However, Yeriel, who had been throwing a tantrum today as well, rushed out after receiving a call. The buhguhbus huddling together in the corner and trembling in fear were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. However, before they could fully calm their hearts, they got startled again by Yeriel’s speedy return. The buhguhbus hurriedly rushed back to the corner and looked at her with a questioning gaze; they thought she would struggle with the toharis for a long time and explode in anger again. But no—

“Oh…?” One of the buhguhbus slowly opened his mouth and exclaimed because he saw magic appear in Yeriel’s hands after her sudden exit and reentrance. What she was doing was so strange and fascinating that there was no other way to describe it other than magic. The buhguhbus huddling in the corner took two steps forward in a trance. Soon, they surrounded Yeriel and looked at what she was doing with dazed expressions. They lost track of time.

The buhguhbus glanced sideways at Yeriel, who was sweating heavily. “What…is that?”

Yeriel did not reply; instead, she made a big smile for the first time since she entered the workshop.

* * *

The next morning, all the members living in Seven Stars gathered in the conference room after breakfast; even an outside member, Emmanuel, was present in the meeting. The reason why such a large number of people had gathered early in the morning was simple—Yeriel had requested it.

The conference room was moderately noisy. Everyone wondered why Yeriel had called them and waited for her while talking to each other. Soon after, Chi-Woo entered and sat in the top seat, followed by Yeriel and the buhguhbus. Yeriel looked as tired as yesterday, but it was hard to read any emotions from her monotonous expression. In contrast, the buhguhbus looked like they were wondering if they were in a dream.

“I was briefed on what happened but…” Chi-Woo glanced at Eval Sevaru, who was standing next to him, and continued, “I heard you had something to show us.”

Yeriel let out a long sigh. Then she raised her hands and clapped.

‘What is she doing?’ Chi-Woo gave her a questionable look, but what the buhguhbus did afterward was even stranger.

As soon as Yeriel gave her signal, they moved in perfect synchronization as if they were her loyal subordinates. The buhguhbus placed what they had in their hands one by one in front of the participants of the meeting, including Chi-Woo.

‘This is…’ It was a marble. On second thought, Chi-Woo recalled seeing Yeriel use something similar to this in the Hala Forest. While the marble he saw at the time was the size of a pebble suitable for playing marble games, the ones presented now were bigger, about the size of a bouncy ball. All the marbles were the same in shape and color—dark like metal had been mixed and compressed into a sphere.

Yunael asked, “What is this?” She held up the marble and carefully observed it from every angle.

Her head slightly lowered, Yeriel lifted her eyes at Yunael’s question. Then she said, “…Before I explain, there’s something I want you all to do.”