Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 459
[ You have placed Fragments of Polar Day into the combination jar. ]
[ Combination will begin. ]
[ Combining...... ]
[ Combination has failed. ]
When he had asked Grid, Grid had said that in order to create the special trait item related to the Sun-Moon Body, he first had to turn the Fragments of Polar Night and the Fragments of Polar Day into whole, complete items instead of fragments.
Then, the Sun-Moon Body item would be created by taking those complete forms and mixing them again in a certain ratio.
Naturally, Grid hadn’t told him that number.
So Su-ho had just piled them up by the sack and started tossing them in.
For some reason, this was a rule that couldn’t be revealed even if Grid received every single one of the Runes of the Seven Deadly Sins Su-ho possessed.
‘I mean, that’s just ridiculous.’
Where in the world does something like that even make sense?
But since Grid had looked even more regretful about refusing Su-ho’s offer, he stopped arguing and began spinning the combination jar in a seat-of-the-pants way.
[ You have placed Fragments of Polar Day into the combination jar. ]
[ Combination will begin. ]
[ Combining...... ]
[ Combination has failed. ]
He’d lost count of how many failures it had been.
It was when he had been gradually increasing the number piece by piece.
[ You have placed Fragments of Polar Day into the combination jar. ]
[ Combination will begin. ]
[ Combining...... ]
[ Huh? What’s with the jar’s condition?! ]
[ Congratulations! A rare treasure has been born from a low-grade combination recipe! ]
[ You have obtained Essence of Polar Day (S). ]
[ For achieving a tremendous feat, the system gifts you 5 bonus stats. ]
He had been spinning the jar with a blank expression for quite some time.
At last, he had succeeded in turning the Fragments of Polar Day into a single, complete item.
Su-ho immediately checked the information on Essence of Polar Day.
[ Essence of Polar Day ]
Grade: S
# All beings that live in the polar day zone contain a little of the power of polar day. The Essence of Polar Day is born from gathering them all together.
# The essence is filled with sunlight from the sun that never sets and positive yang energy, containing eternal heat.
# If you are not careful, even your soul will be caught up in the heat.
Words as ominous as could be.
Judging by the fact that no options were written separately, this too would normally be a type of extremely finicky material.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’
Because I know what this is used for.
Su-ho looked at the remaining materials.
As he counted them, he got the feeling that he might not have enough essences to make the Sun-Moon Body item.
‘What a hassle.’
Su-ho once again released clone soldiers and had them gather up Fragments of Polar Day.
Then he began combining all the remaining fragments and was able to obtain a little over ten Essences of Polar Day.
The same went for Essence of Polar Night.
Essence of Polar Night had the exact same combination-quantity recipe as Essence of Polar Day, and on a whim, he tried setting aside one or two to make something else. But unfortunately, the combination count was completely identical to Essence of Polar Day, and he had only wasted fragments for nothing.
“Check Essence of Polar Night.”
[ Essence of Polar Night ]
Grade: S
# All beings that live in the polar night zone contain a little of the power of polar night. The Essence of Polar Night is born from gathering them all together.
# The essence is filled with moonlight from the darkness that never lifts and negative yin energy, containing eternal chill.
# If you are not careful, even your soul will freeze solid.
Even the descriptions were similar.
Polar day was the sun, polar night was the moon.
Su-ho began in earnest to synthesize the two essences.
[ You have placed Essence of Polar Day into the combination jar. ]
[ You have placed Essence of Polar Night into the combination jar. ]
[ Combination will begin. ]
[ Combining...... ]
[ Combination has failed. ]
It was clearly going to take a long time.
*
Creating the Sun-Moon Body item took even longer than he had expected.
He had used up all the Essences of Polar Day and Polar Night he had and still failed.
So now he simply scattered clone soldiers across the northern and southern hemispheres and sourced the materials in real time.
It consumed a tremendous amount of mana.
So at some point, he stopped practicing Ganggong Style and instead began performing Un-Gi-Jo-Sik, which had reached S-grade, and only after about three days had passed did he finally obtain the result he wanted.
[ You have placed Essence of Polar Day into the combination jar. ]
[ You have placed Essence of Polar Night into the combination jar. ]
[ Combination will begin. ]
[ Combining...... ]
[ Huh? What’s with the jar’s condition?! ]
[ Congratulations! A rare treasure has been born from a mid-grade combination recipe! ]
[ You have obtained Sun-Moon Night Jade (S). ]
[ For achieving a great feat, the system gifts you 10 bonus stats. ]
The fact that he had synthesized so many essences that a low-grade combination recipe had turned into a mid-grade one was just a bonus.
But separate from that, Su-ho had plugged in every possible combination until he finally got what he wanted.
“Check Sun-Moon Night Jade.”
[ Sun-Moon Night Jade ]
Grade: S
# Two forces that can never mix have succeeded in becoming one by means of a subtle mystery.
# The Sun-Moon Night Jade, which holds the energies of both the sun and the moon, allows you to simultaneously contain the energies of the sun and the moon the moment you consume it.
Seeing the description, Su-ho laughed.
A simple description.
But despite how simple it was, what it contained was enormous.
Snap!
When Su-ho snapped his fingers, the clone soldiers that had been spread across the northern and southern hemispheres were all simultaneously reverse-summoned, and the scattered mana returned to him at once.
“Ah, now I finally feel alive again.”
He had somewhat controlled the number of clone soldiers he spread out, but even so, using this many clone soldiers at once was still a burden.
But that was over now.
Because he had finally gotten his hands on Sun-Moon Night Jade.
- You pulled it off in the end.
At that moment, Grid, who had been quietly watching from the side, spoke up.
Su-ho shook Sun-Moon Night Jade at him as he replied.
“There’s no such thing as ‘can’t be done.’ You just keep going until it works.”
- Yeah, looking at you, that really does seem to be the right answer.
“I just eat it, right? Got any advice I should know?”
- None. If I had to say something, it’d just be: hang in there with everything you’ve got.
“...So the options don’t just pop out with a snap, huh?”
- Hehe, great power always comes with great cost.
Su-ho furrowed his brow.
Of course.
He had suddenly popped out without being called and started cheering him on.
Su-ho opened his status window, invested all 15 bonus stats he’d gained from essence synthesis into Senses, then refreshed the window.
[ An Su-ho ]
Lv: 276Class: Rage CrusaderRank: Middle PlayerTraits: <New Blood><Hercules Candidate><King of Nation-Slaying><Power of the Sun><Power of the Moon><Grid’s Partner>Strength (P): 7Mana (S): 7Senses (N): 68Command (N): 95Bonus Stats: 0Su-ho’s gaze moved to the traits section of the updated status window.
‘Power of the Sun, and Power of the Moon.’
He had somehow ended up obtaining both, and now he was being told those could become one?
Su-ho swallowed dryly.
Since the Great Demon had told him to endure with everything he had, he could already foresee the immense pain that would entail.
But he had to endure it.
After all the effort he had gone through, there was no way he could not swallow this.
Su-ho cast the buffs that would be useful for absorbing Sun-Moon Night Jade.
[ Blessing is activated. ]
[ Endurance is activated. ]
Even if it was only two, it was better than nothing.
Once he finished his preparations, Su-ho sat down and put Sun-Moon Night Jade into his mouth.
[ You have consumed Sun-Moon Night Jade. ]
Sun-Moon Night Jade melted away the moment it entered his mouth, like cotton candy.
After that, a brief silence followed.
[ Conditions have been met. ]
[ Power of the Sun reacts to Sun-Moon Night Jade. ]
[ Power of the Moon reacts to Sun-Moon Night Jade. ]
[ The two opposing forces react violently to Sun-Moon Night Jade and trigger a change. ]
Fwaaaah!
An immense pain began to rage inside his body.
‘Damn... this really hurts.’
His brows furrowed, and his body bent forward slightly.
Even though Su-ho had stepped into the realm of superhumans, this pain that began from within his body was just as painful as taking Girard’s Rock-Shattering Fist head-on.
“Ghhk!”
In the end, Su-ho ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) had no choice but to sit down.
Then he straightened his back, sat cross-legged, and placed both hands below his navel.
‘Yeah, endure it. Just fucking endure it.’
There was no other answer than that.
And enduring and holding out was something he could do better than anyone.
Thus began Su-ho’s quiet battle.
*
- Impressive.
How much time had passed?
Grid circled near Su-ho and watched his endurance.
Sitting cross-legged in a meditative posture, Su-ho had not shown a single movement since he’d first taken that position.
If anything had changed, it was that flames would occasionally burst out over his body or his body would freeze solid.
Watching that, Grid thought to himself,
Those must all be processes for turning him into the Sun-Moon Body.
But although he could put it into words simply, Grid actually knew the truth.
That no mere human—even if that category was a Player empowered by the system’s power—could easily accept two extreme energies at once.
- Without sufficient stamina and mental strength, even a Great Demon like me couldn’t accept such an unknown power.
But amusingly enough, Grid wasn’t worried about Su-ho.
Because although he had seen countless living beings up to now, he had never seen a creature as strong and tenacious as this “mere human” Su-ho.
Fwoom!
At that moment, flames burst out over Su-ho’s body once more.
However, before long—
Psssshh... crackle— crackle-crackle!
The flames went out and smoke rose, and then, following that smoke, his entire body began to freeze over.
But even that, before long, broke and melted again, then caught fire once more, in a repeating cycle.
- Hang in there, Su-ho. That way you can make me the Demon King.
Grid’s quiet cheer.
It was about two more days after that.
Shrrk!
- Hm?
One of Grid’s eyebrows rose as he continued to watch Su-ho.
Because for the first time, something different happened to Su-ho, who had only ever burned and frozen over and over again until now.
As if someone had turned off a TV, the yin and yang energies spilling out from Su-ho suddenly vanished.
And for the first time in days, Su-ho’s mouth, which had maintained a statue-still posture, parted slightly.
“Ssssssip...”
It began with an inhalation.
“Haaaaa...”
Followed by an exhalation.
Before long, Su-ho’s eyes opened slowly, and Grid could see the corners of his mouth rising.
Grid likewise raised one corner of his mouth as he asked,
- Looks like you succeeded?
“Of course.”
After answering, Su-ho’s gaze moved to the system notifications floating before his eyes.
[ You have successfully fully absorbed Sun-Moon Night Jade. ]
[ You fully absorb Power of the Sun. ]
[ You fully absorb Power of the Moon. ]
[ Your body undergoes a change. ]
[ Congratulations! The system grants you the qualification to possess the powers of the sun and the moon simultaneously. ]
[ ‘Power of the Sun’ is deleted. ]
[ ‘Power of the Moon’ is deleted. ]
[ A new trait is added. ]
[ You have obtained ‘the Sun-Moon Body’. ]
[ Some trait and skill information has changed. ]
[ Due to the influence of the Sun-Moon Body, ‘Power of the Sun’ is deleted. ]
[ Due to the influence of the Sun-Moon Body, ‘Full Moon Force’ is deleted. ]
[ In place of the deleted skills, you have acquired ‘Eclipse’. ]
[ For achieving a great feat, the system gifts you 10 bonus stats. ]
System notifications pouring in.
The moment had finally come when he could use the powers of the sun and the moon at the same time.
