The raid against the great archdemon Gremory.

This was judged to fall under the category of a large-scale raid.

A large-scale raid meant that even when multiple people had not formed a party, if the hunt succeeded, they would still divide the experience, artifacts, materials, and so on according to contribution.

The contribution rankings, revealed to the whole world, announced the current standings.

[The great archdemon Gremory has been annihilated!!]

[Only ranks 1 through 3 among those who contributed greatly to hunting the great archdemon Gremory will be shown.]

[#1 Bahala]

[#2 Hyunsoo]

[#3 Kabel]

[All participants in the Ares Church war receive a reward of 3 level-ups.]

[All participants in the Ares Church war receive the blessing of the Ares Church.]

[For 2 weeks, experience and drop rate increase by 50%, and all stats increase by 10%.]

[The Ares Church grows firmer.]

Seeing this, the commentators realized that Hyunsoo truly had not hunted her alone.

Now we can see what we failed to see behind the White Tiger Sword—the contributions of those hidden behind it.

Since this is being calculated by the system, we can say with certainty that it is accurate.

Bahala is in first place, and there is more than enough reason for that. After the initial appearance of the great archdemon Gremory, she threatened Luxiu, and when she descended to the surface because of user Hyunsoo’s summoning, her HP had already dropped significantly. In that state, Bahala drove her HP down to 2%.

And then the great archdemon Gremory manifested Puppet Devil and fully revived at 100% HP. I suspect that footage of Bahala at that moment may become the second highlight reel of this war.

That would make sense. He pulled out the Twin Dragon Sword that had been lodged in her chest, awakened with Awaken, and in just a few dozen seconds forced the full-health great archdemon Gremory below 10% HP, which triggered her awakening.

That awakening is the key point. Once awakened, Gremory’s regeneration rapidly deteriorated, and she even took on the restriction that she could no longer resurrect. That was what brought her to the point where she could actually be annihilated, and at that time Bahala drove down the HP of the awakened Gremory.

When Hyunsoo appeared, Gremory had only 40% HP remaining. Of course, she was in a more strengthened state then, but if we assume that after all the times her HP had risen her total HP pool equals 100%, then we can say Bahala cut off roughly 70% and Hyunsoo about 30%.

That’s right. We were briefly mistaken in thinking that user Hyunsoo had overwhelmingly solo-raided her, but he absolutely did not raid her alone.

That would also be why user Hyunsoo did not engrave his own name into the World Message. The World Message usually measures the one who lands the finishing blow as the “hunter.”

It also seems Kabel was active out of sight. A great many of the 22 Legion Commanders may have met their deaths at Kabel’s hands.

Exactly. The clear fact is that, in the end, the biggest contributor to this raid was Bahala.

And yet, this feels strange.

I feel the same way.

What the commentators were saying was entirely reasonable.

And yet right now, everyone’s eyes—

were not on Bahala, World Rank #1, who could in effect be said to have earned 70% of the contribution, but on our little hero.

The reason for that truth was quickly identified.

It’s because while user Hyunsoo, who forged the first mythology artifact, the White Tiger Sword, fell behind Bahala in contribution, it is also true that the impact he left was greater than Bahala’s.

It was exactly as they said.

Bahala was holding Hyunsoo in his arms.

......This is the first time I’ve ever felt like this.

He was genuinely, considerably flustered.

It was a feeling he could not understand.

Pope Karsel, Saintess Aria.

And beyond them, the Holy Knights, the priests, and most of the people gathered here.

All of their attention was fixed on Hyunsoo.

Of course, that was also because Hyunsoo had shared the credit with everyone—but Bahala himself knew it too.

I’m feeling self-reproach...... and jealousy......?

Goosebumps rose on Bahala’s body.

It was something he had never once felt while playing the game Ares.

But at the same time......

Is it only natural?

Because he, too, had run forward when he saw Hyunsoo collapsing.

Why?

......Because I didn’t want to see him hit the ground.

And Bahala.

Behind the bitter emotion he was feeling for the first time in his life, another feeling began to rise at this moment.

It was another emotion he had never felt in his life, and one more thing besides—it was curiosity.

That would become the prelude to yet another shocking event, one that would happen once Hyunsoo woke up.

And right then.

“Mmm......”

Hyunsoo began to wake.

*****

The White Tiger Sword was outstanding, but it was by no means something easy to wield.

As he woke, Hyunsoo became aware of it.

It consumes stamina at three times the normal rate.......

Of course, depending on the growth of the user—or of the NPC wearing it—that might become a problem partially solved in time.

But for now, it was clearly a sword Hyunsoo could not use for long.

Then again, being able to swing a mythology sword however you want wouldn’t exactly make sense.

And as Hyunsoo woke, he grinned crookedly as one notification reached him.

[The owner of Babylon has annihilated a great archdemon.]

[He has achieved 2nd place contribution in the great archdemon Gremory raid.]

[The title Creator of Babylon shines.]

[You obtain a total of 53 random stats.]

[You obtain 23 Agility, 11 Stamina, 10 Strength, and 10 Intellect.]

When viewed as a result, the fact that Bahala had achieved 1st place in contribution—

was not a bad thing.

If people think I overwhelmingly annihilated the great archdemon Gremory by myself, that would be an even bigger problem.

That was the problem of expectations.

Without the White Tiger Sword, Hyunsoo was not actually that strong, and yet people would start expecting him to be.

Having finished that train of thought, Hyunsoo opened his eyes—

and startled upright in surprise when he saw Bahala.

“What the hell?”

And some of the viewers around the world—

What a shame. It’s not often that World Rank #1 Bahala and Master Blacksmith Hyun get to show such closeness together like this.

They were not teasing the two of them.

The sight of World Rank #1 Bahala and Master Blacksmith Hyun appearing close was, in fact, deeply appealing to people around the world.

And once he gathered himself, Hyunsoo finally saw the flood of rewards appearing before him.

Even though Hyunsoo had only placed second in contribution, his growth was bound to be greater than Bahala’s.

Because Bahala was already above level 500, while Hyunsoo was still only in the 440s.

And in the past, when Hyunsoo had sealed the demon Gremory, he had gained 10 million experience.

For ordinary users, that was an amount of experience they might never obtain in a lifetime.

But this time, the situation was different.

Back then, they had hunted her with four people. This time, it had been two.

And compared to then, Gremory’s level had been raised, and because a new story had broken out, experience had been tripled.

On top of that, thanks to the title Great Archdemon Hunter, drop rate had been doubled.

The result stood before his eyes.

[Distributed according to contribution.]

[You obtain 1,631,010 gold.]

[You obtain 22,301,000 experience.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up......]

[You obtain Gremory’s Earring.]

Bahala definitely had higher contribution than Hyunsoo, which meant the amount of experience he obtained would also be higher.

But did that mean his growth would be greater?

Not at all.

Hyunsoo had grown overwhelmingly more.

To begin with, he had gone up 8 levels and entered the 450s.

By contrast, it was estimated that Bahala had likely gone up at most around 2 levels.

And even—

1.6 million gold? Then that means a single monster dropped well over 3 billion won?

It was an enormous sum.

But there was one disappointing thing as well.

[The grade of Gremory’s Ring is lowered.]

[It is a legendary artifact.]

With the annihilation of the great archdemon Gremory, the Transcendence artifact had effectively become meaningless.

In truth, the advantage of Gremory’s Ring had been in summoning Gremory.

But in the end, that loss was more than compensated for by the appearance of an artifact that worked even more beneficially.

(Gremory’s Earring)

Grade: Transcendence

Durability: Infinite

Defense: 205

Restriction: Level 500 or higher

Special Abilities:

·Natural mana recovery speed increases by 3x

·MP consumption from all skill use decreases by 50%

It was simplicity itself.

But precisely because it was so simple, it hit even harder.

Holy shit...... this is insane......!

Users went wild over artifacts that reduced MP consumption.

Even ones that only lowered it by 10–20% were traded for absurd prices.

Because the lower your MP consumption was, the more skills you could use during combat.

For example, after using Cry out, White Tiger and Tear them apart, White Tiger—

Hyunsoo had not been able to use Sweep them away, White Tiger, the “power of the tiger” that led them, and instead had struck Gremory with basic attacks.

Because his MP had bottomed out.

The MP cost of those two powers had been in the ten-thousands.

But if he had been wearing this earring?

Using those two powers had consumed about 25,000 mana total, but this lowers it to 12,500.......

That meant his MP would no longer bottom out!

It was truly absurd.

And it practically meant that the massive new powers he would acquire in the future could now be used far more freely as well.

But this was not an artifact meant for Hyunsoo alone.

Even though, in a large-scale raid, artifacts were obtained according to contribution and acquisition itself was influenced by “luck,” there was still a certain moral issue at play.

And Hyunsoo even thought that maybe the right thing to do would be to sell it and split the proceeds among the guild members.

And so, before he could even type in guild chat—

[Nell: Whatever it is you obtained, saying you’ll sell it and split it would be idiotic. Countless people shared contribution through participating in the great archdemon raid, but do not forget that the ones who actually hunted “Gremory” were only Bahala and Lord Hyunsoo.]

Nell sharply jabbed at Hyunsoo.

When he turned his head to look at them, they were smiling brightly despite the harshness of their words.

The other guild members looked like they agreed too.

So Hyunsoo repaid them in a more meaningful way.

“When we get back, I’ll look over your artifacts.”

“......”

“......”

Hyunsoo shared his “talent” with his guild members.

That was his reward for them, and his return gift.

Which meant the only one left now was Bahala.

But Bahala spoke.

“......You take it.”

“......?”

Hyunsoo made a puzzled expression.

Bahala had shown him goodwill in the past, but there was no need for him to do so now.

Back when they had sealed Gremory, Kabel and Bahala had yielded Gremory’s Ring.

The truth was that Hyunsoo’s contribution back then had simply been too great.

Because without Destroy Evil, it could never have been done.

And just as expected—

“There is one condition.”

“A condition?”

The worldwide viewer count was dropping at an exponential rate.

High rankers did not reveal the loot they obtained.

If they did, enemies might make use of that information against them.

Most viewers checked the “contribution ranking” on a raid broadcast and then left.

And many of them had only paused what they were doing to watch.

And yet, right now—

the ratings were beginning to rise again.

Because this was about to turn into something absurd in Ares history.

The sword, Babylon.

Bahala held it in both hands, raised vertically right before him.

Hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.

And here, in this official setting, under the gaze of countless people, he spoke.

“I, Bahala, promise within the etiquette of the swordsman that I will uphold morality and discipline.”

The reason people were falling into shock and the viewer numbers were surging—

W-what is this......?

It’s the Code of the Knight! NPCs usually recite this before performing certain acts, but users don’t. Because it’s too cringeworthy.

But it’s different. When Bahala recites it, it feels completely different!

And it really did.

Together with the code of one who walked the path of the Sword God.

And for Bahala, who walked that path, this code was even more special.

[It can only be declared 2 times.]

[It is completed when the one named by the code accepts, and if you defeat that person, you will reach a higher realm.]

And the end of that code was—

“I, Bahala, respectfully ask for a duel with you.”

Bahala lowered the upright sword with force.

CHAAAANG—!

[The Code of the Sword manifests!]

[You request a sparring match from the other party!]

[They are the first creator ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) of mythology and one who reaches godhood faster than you!]

[The qualification requirements are met!]

“......”

That was right.

Bahala’s condition.

It was 1:1 PvP.

The viewers around the world erupted.

World Rank #1.

And an unmatched existence.

He was asking a mythic blacksmith for a duel first.

It was the moment when everyone’s eyes were fixed on Hyunsoo’s mouth.