Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 418
What did I just see?
That’s the Golden Hind I’m supposed to capture?
Don’t tell me you’re the boss monster?
At that moment.
[ A boss monster appears. ]
Seeing the system notification, Su-ho smacked his forehead with a sharp tak!
Of course.
Bad premonitions always hit the mark.
Sliding his hand down from his brow to cover his face, Su-ho peered at the Golden Hind through the gaps between his fingers.
The Golden-Horned Warrior Who Guards the Snow Mountain Lv.???
The Golden-Horned Warrior Who Guards the Snow Mountain.
Even the name is long.
But no matter how he looked, he didn’t see any horns on the thing?
And what did it matter?
Either way, it was obvious this thing was the owner of this Gate and the final weapon sent by that damned Hera.
‘But surely I don’t actually have to capture it alive, right?’
According to the existing Heracles-labor tale, Artemis’s Golden Hind was to be captured alive.
But retracing the information he’d encountered, there wasn’t a single line saying to “capture” this one.
He grinned.
‘In that case, the story changes a bit.’
Only frowning for a moment, Su-ho immediately began preparing to take it down.
“Golden Bambi...... fine, from now on you’re Geumbi.”
Grrng?
“What do you mean, grrng—let’s start right now.”
Su-ho immediately popped his self-buffs.
[ Blessing is activated. ]
[ Holy Enchant is activated. ]
[ Mana Perception is activated. ]
[ Endurance is activated. ]
[ Eye of the Blacksmith is activated. ]
Then he descended to the ground and reverse-summoned the Iron Horse.
“Good work.”
“Neigh!”
He put the Iron Horse away because of Geumbi’s traits.
Judging by the look of it, it was a hit-and-run speed type, and seeing it scrape the ground in midair like that, he judged that an aerial battle would be largely meaningless.
‘If I fight in the air for nothing, I’ll just end up damaging my Iron Horse.’
So he came down to the ground.
But once he came down, there were guys waiting for Su-ho with craned necks.
“Kkweeeeeeeek!!”
[ The Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior uses Gakrok Wave. ]
[ The Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior uses Gakrok Wave. ]
[ The Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior uses Gakrok Wave. ]
......
The heavy horned warriors who’d been staring up at him from the ground let loose Gakrok Waves the moment they’d been waiting for.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!
As the Gakrok Waves poured down, Su-ho immediately wrapped ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) himself in a Blood Shield to block them.
That was the only thing worth minding.
The nimble horned warriors had already turned into fools on the frozen ground.
“Guiyeong!”
Shrrk!
At Su-ho’s shout, the summoned Guiyeong lunged at the heavy horned warriors.
Thanks to that, the Gakrok Waves cut off for an instant, and Su-ho, outputting Heatstorm to the maximum, drew his blade and charged the heavy horned warriors.
[ Heatstorm is activated. ]
Fwooooooosh!!
On maximum output, Heatstorm instantly melted the icy road across the snow mountain that the Art of Wind and Rain had made.
Thanks to that, Su-ho could reach the heavy horned warriors without slipping once.
“Muuoooooo!!”
Feeling the intense heat at Su-ho’s approach, the elk reared in fright.
Doesn’t matter.
Su-ho swung his blade at once.
[ Steel Severance is activated. ]
Kwa-jak!
With one swing, three horned warriors were cut down.
Su-ho’s stats were so high that both the range and the arc had widened.
Just then—
Kwaaang!!
A heavy collision.
Like being hit by a dump truck, Su-ho was sent flying a good distance.
It was Geumbi.
“Ugh, that thickheaded bastard......!”
Right.
I was wondering how long you were going to just sit there watching me.
But even so, it wasn’t like I wasn’t conscious of you—how did I not catch you even once?
Geumbi’s speed was greater than he’d thought.
Even so, the order of operations put the heavy horned warriors first.
If he wanted to focus exclusively on Geumbi, it was right to clear out the rest of the pests first.
‘I’ll do it in one go.’
Su-ho used a skill.
[ Shadow Movement is activated. ]
Upon using Shadow Movement, Su-ho shifted to Guiyeong’s position, where it was trampling through the heavy horned warriors.
At the same time, Su-ho began a mad sword dance.
“Kkweeeeeeeek!!”
Mega Elk, and the horned warriors’ great blades—none of them could hold out before Su-ho’s swordwork.
They were elites prepared by Hera, but at most in the 200-level range; with Su-ho’s purple stats boosted besides, he was an unpreventable calamity to them.
[ You have slain the Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior. ]
[ You have slain the Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior. ]
[ You have slain the Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior. ]
[ You have slain the Snow Mountain’s heavy and powerful horned warrior. ]
......
On the frozen snow, the blood of Mega Elk and heavy horned warriors stained the ground.
Their deaths were a scheduled misfortune.
But that was only the misfortune of small fry.
Their boss, Geumbi, couldn’t care less about the deaths of the lower warriors...... No, from the start, the lives of the lower warriors weren’t even a consideration.
As proof, Geumbi, paying no mind to the safety of its subordinates, tore through them solely to inflict damage on Su-ho.
But the same went for Su-ho.
At present, there was nothing here that Su-ho needed to mind.
So he could swing freely, and if Geumbi happened to get hit by a blind swing, that would just be a thank-you very much.
Swinging like a madman for some time, the lower warriors who’d been firing those annoying Gakrok Waves were all butchered by Su-ho and Geumbi.
Shaking the blood from his blade, Su-ho spoke.
“Man, you heartless bastard. How do you not care a shred about your own men?”
Kkweeeeeeeek!!
[ The Golden-Horned Warrior Who Guards the Snow Mountain uses boss-monster-grade Fear. ]
[ Dragon Blood is activated. ]
[ Due to the Dragon Mind effect of Dragon Blood, Fear does not apply. ]
Annoyed at Su-ho’s jab, Geumbi let out a bellow.
Naturally occurring boss Fear.
Of course it didn’t take.
With a thin smile, Su-ho said,
“For a deer, you’ve got some lungs. Get over here—I’ll finish this quick.”
Kkweeeeeeeek!
Maybe the taunt worked—Geumbi’s body flashed gold and, turning into a golden streak, charged Su-ho.
The instant its body lit up, Su-ho used a skill.
[ Cheongeunchu is activated. ]
And then—
[ Blood Armory is activated. ]
At the same time as the golden flash, two skills activated almost simultaneously.
Geumbi, as ever, charged Su-ho at high speed.
It was nearly its only technique, but in any case, it had realized Su-ho couldn’t catch it.
And that was Geumbi’s mistake.
Kwad deudeudeuk!
A gruesome piercing sound.
At the same time, Su-ho smiled.
No wonder—long red spear-blades had skewered it like a kebab.
With Blood Armory, Su-ho bristled his body like a sea urchin.
He’d used Cheongeunchu for this reason.
If the supporting weight was heavy, even if something slammed in at high speed, he’d be pushed back less.
Kkwee......
In a dying voice, Geumbi trembled.
But Su-ho showed no sympathy at all, summoned the Blood Sword, and drove the blade into its body.
Kkwek!!
He stabbed it cleanly in the flank.
He transformed the inserted blade inside like a hook; now, even if it thrashed, it wouldn’t be able to get free.
After retrieving the Blood Armory, Su-ho left only the Blood Sword and, gripping it, looked down at Geumbi.
“You think I wouldn’t know how to deal with a thing like you.”
Su-ho had gone all the way to the very late end of the Great Cataclysm.
He’d met countless monsters in that time; what a brute that relied on nothing but speed could do was obvious.
Besides, wasn’t this the mid–Great Cataclysm?
No matter how that woman Hera had sharpened a hidden blade, there was such a thing as a season limit, so the danger rating of the blade she could bring out had a ceiling.
“Let’s finish this.”
The instant Su-ho summoned a new Blood Sword into his other hand and raised it—
Kwa-r-r-rumble!!
Lightning fell from the sky.
It crashed down on Su-ho’s sword, rode the blade like a lightning rod, and slammed Su-ho’s whole body.
Prsssk......!
It was a powerful bolt.
For a moment, Su-ho’s whole body was charred black.
But Su-ho did not lose consciousness.
It was a distant, ghastly pain, but he barely held on.
He also held tight to the Blood Sword skewering Geumbi, clinging to it like a lifeline.
Then—
Whoooooosh!
A wind surged.
At the same time, Su-ho’s Art of Wind and Rain stopped, and the snowflakes mixed into it also ceased to fall.
But the air grew colder than ever.
The raging wind gathered into one and coalesced; then from that place, a sacred radiance burst forth and a human silhouette appeared.
Who dares attempt to harm my deer!!
A ringing shout.
It wasn’t Fear.
No system notification popped.
But at the silhouette’s shout, with eyes blazing light, Su-ho’s head throbbed as if it would split apart.
‘What the hell is that......!’
With his skull ringing fit to crack, it was hard to pull himself together.
But clinging to his wits, he slit his eyes open and looked up at the silhouette.
Blue and navy swirled, and at their center stood the silhouette, its outline faint as if veiled by a silk curtain.
But its white-blue eye-light was clearer than any other glow; instinctively, Su-ho realized who the being was.
‘Could it be Artemis?’
Correct.
Along with her characteristic hues, she had dropped a powerful bolt like a punishment from the system.
At the same time, the silhouette had called Geumbi “my deer.”
Thus Su-ho couldn’t help but recall the remainder of the third labor’s narrative.
‘When Heracles tried to seize the Golden Hind, he met Artemis, its owner, and was severely scolded......!’
Right.
No wonder things felt like they were going too smoothly.
Even in the existing tale, Hera, to screw over Heracles, tried to use not the hind’s physique but its backing—Artemis.
Heracles was indeed an excellent hunter, but no matter what, he couldn’t do anything about a god’s wrath.
Still, it was a little odd.
Because the Black Heracles—who’d been Heracles in the previous life—had said that when he carried out the third labor, there was no Golden Hind, and no intervention by Artemis.
‘So this must be the real hidden trump Hera prepared......!’
If she went this far, credit where it’s due.
But that didn’t mean he intended to give up.
If you, Hera, are going to utilize the existing tale, then I can hack my way through by the same tale.
Su-ho, squeezing his parched vocal cords, shouted toward Artemis’s silhouette.
“By any chance, are you Lady Artemis!”
Indeed, I am Artemis, one of the Twelve of Olympus, goddess of the moon and archery, and of nature and chastity! Do you have any idea what it is you just dared to harm!
“I do not! I am merely taking a god’s trial to become a hero! If I had known this deer was Lady Artemis’s deer, I would never have harmed it!”
Hmph! Your words sound plausible! But you have already wounded my deer like that—I can never forgive you!
“Then I will heal it back myself!”
What? Puhahaha! Do you know what kind of deer that is? That deer is not something a paltry human like you could ever heal!
“I will try anyway! If I cannot heal it, then I will accept punishment!”
Su-ho’s shout.
It was sincere.
And perhaps Artemis also felt Su-ho’s sincerity?
Fwoo!
Air that had felt like it would freeze dropped to a cool level, and the surroundings calmed.
Artemis narrowed the glow in the silhouette’s eyes and smiled.
Good. You must keep that promise without fail.
